Seasonal Neighbours at Kunstenfestival Watou
Together with the other members of the collective Seasonal Neighbours, Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers present three projects during kunstenfestival Watou 2026 titled gemene wegen (‘common ways’)
15/07 – 30/08/2026
For Kunstenfestival Watou, Seasonal Neighbours presents three projects to give insight into their collective artistic practice.
They reactivate the spatial intervention House for Seasonal Neighbours, a public house with which the collective has visited multiple locations since 2018 to make connections between temporary and fixed inhabitants. For kunstenfestival Watou, House for Seasonal Neighbours will host fieldwork notes from different Seasonal Neighbours collective members that trace rituals and rhythms of seasonal labour and their socio-political implications.
The project Somewhere here, somewhere there by Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers will be presented as an installation composed of a large model, around which visitors can take part in a conversation about living in the countryside. Through a list of questions the artists invite visitors to situate their own life in the imagined village street. This life unfolds next to that of local seasonal workers, who take part in the conversation through audio fragments.
With Wandelpoortjes (‘strolling gates’) Jonathan De Maeyer presents a series of small swing gates that appear in unexpected places in the area of Watou. Through these gates De Maeyer suggests a possible border or route that might not be here. In this way he invites visitors to reflect about access, use and rights.
Practical
Kunstenfestival Watou, in and around the village of Watou, Belgium