Traveling exhibition with accompanying booklet
for young people in the age of 10 to 14
How happy are we with our bodies? How constraining is the straitjacket of fashion? To what extent can we reduce the body to a construction kit? How beautiful can a body be in all its imperfection?
Young people between the ages of 10 and 14 stand on the threshold of puberty and the transition to adulthood. Coping with these confusing physical changes is quite a challenge. LIJF therefore decided to ask young people about their bodies, in an interactive, philosophical fashion, and to use contemporary art to open up what can be a somewhat awkward subject for discussion.
LIJF exhibition
The LIJF exhibition includes 37 works by contemporary artists such as :
Marlene Dumas [graphics]
Robert Gligorov [mixed media]
Anthony Goicolea
Yael Davids [video]
Margi Geerlinks
Carla van de Puttelaar
Sabine Plamper
Daniele Buetti
Lieve Blanquaert
Michiel Hendryckx [photography]
Ronald Stoops & Inge Grognard [photography|fashion design]
Chantal Grard
Hedwig Brouckaert
Jan Winkels [sculpture]
Walter Van Beirendonck [fashion design]
• The LIJF exhibition is still on tour until june 13th 2006. See list of locations. [in Dutch]
LIJF booklet | International cooperation
As part of its preparations for LIJF, RASA talked to young people aged 10 to 14 from four different countries about what they think about their bodies.
During interviews and workshops RASA itself and organisations from The Netherlands (Scoop), Germany (Carrousel Theatre) and Russia (Theatre-studio Skvorechnic) asked young people about their perceptions of their bodies.
The results of this survey have been compiled in a publication. This booklet contains views expressed by the children’s about the pressing issues which preoccupy them, together with pictures of artworks from the exhibition and illustrations by Sabien Clement. The publication is also available via this website.
A few examples of what the young people had to say :
• Feeling good is more important than looking good. [Andrej, 12 - FL]
• When someone puts their arm on my shoulder, I feel
as though I’ve got a friend. [Fyodor, 11 - RU]
• I often hear people going on about puberty, but I can never see
what they’re talking about! [Anil, 14 - NL]
• Personality is different from appearance. Your personality is what you’re like.
Your appearance is the way you look. [Olivier, 12 - FL]
• Hands betray your age. You can tell how old someone is from their hands. You can
have a facelift and so on, but you can’t do anything about your hands. [Pim B., 14 - NL]
• You can’t live without physical contact: you can’t tickle yourself! [Olivier, 12 - FL]
• I would never get a tattoo. You end up old and knackered, and you’ve still
got Tweety or something on your body. [Georgina, 13 - NL]
• I once read somewhere that girls look at the mirror three times more often
than boys every day. [Leon, 8 - GER]
• I’m shy because I’m human. [Peter, 11 - RU]
• You can find a preview of the booklet on this site or you can order it from RASA at the price of 5 Euro + shipping expenses. Order here.
An English translation is also available on request.
CORPUS 05 | Bruges | 7 may until 11 sept 2005
During the summer of 2005, the body was the theme linking a variaty of cultural manifestations in the city of Bruges, Belgium.
Our exhibition LIJF was shown in Bruges from 7 may until 28 may, in FORUM 6 of the Concertgebouw.
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