Tactile Encounter
Participative workshop

Public Health Palliative Care International Conference, Bruges, September 2022
Glossaries for Forwardness, Trinity College, Dublin, September 2023, invited by The department of Ultimology
Erschöpfung, Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken, December 2023 invited by Hannah Mevis
Pass-ages, Brussels, November 2023 & March 2024

What if stones could serve as mediators to grief ? Thanks to their great capacity to make us present to the transient quality of our human experience, minerals prove to be valuable companions in loss. This workshop offers a space of connection through touch where we will explore a listening kind of contact with a stone. The participants will be invited to both be attuned to how their body reacts to this encounter and to what this shape asks of them. 

NB : The term « grief » is used here in a comprehensive manner, I wish to include acknowledged and unacknowledged losses equally.

Testimonies from the participants of the workshop-performance at the Public Health Palliative Care International Conference, Bruges, septembre 2022
Residency program curated by Julie Rodeyns, Through Art We Care

« Working in pairs and seated opposite each other, we were invited by Anais to engage with a stone concealed in a shroud, placed on a surface. In doing so without speaking, the process allowed both people to ease into a deep connection with material in both a collective and intimate way. This work was a profound experience of care, presence and encounter with the wordless possibilities of our inner worlds. » Fiona H.

« I have participated in a workshop by Anais, where she guided us into a sensorial encounter with a stone: We got aquainted with its shape, softness, weigth, spots, hardness and later parted from it again. Anais creates a perfect safe space to go through activity as you feel it, with her calm, comforting presence. The whole setting, materials, introduction, timing and her voice and words somehow all seem to fit perfectly. Anais points out a direction, and then let’s you discover at your own pace. For some of us it was funny and playfull, others found themselves reliving moments of grief and loss. As I was participating in the middle of a working day, I had not expected the workshop to be as moving, almost therapeutical, as it turned out for me. A true work of art. » Else Gien S.

« I knew Anaïs from her visual work, which to me already had a strong performative quality. I remember how the row of stones I saw at her studio puzzled me- acquiring meaning through the diversity in colour, size, shape, material,..., which made this an odd community of objects, who nonetheless clearly belonged together due to their strict organisation in space- thus opening up, through their silent presence, time for you as a visitor to (search how to) relate to these objects by observing them. Her performative work added a deeper layer- giving me a new entrance to this universe of stones through touch (instead of sight). Vision was eliminated- but strangely enough, this allowed me to connect to this landscape in a much more personal way- becoming part  (instead of being a bystander) of this constellation that connected stones, hands, and persons: the other participants. Being in it instead of outside of it, seemed to activate all my senses: next to touch, i became aware of the sound of my fingers on the fabric, the sounds in the space, and it came with feelings whelming up and whelming down again- finding their own space, at their own pace. Ultimately, a space of connection this accepting deeply humoured me. » Julie R.

Avec le soutient de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles