The Horror Garden

WORKING TITLE FESTIVAL — ​​​​​​​Do people treat plants with enough respect? What happens when plants break out of the background of our living rooms? Gosie Vervloessem calls on a number of horror movies in which plants frighten us. Sometimes they attack us head-on, but often the horror lies in ominously waving branches and rustling bushes. According to the artist, the exploitative human-vegetal relation comes to a climax in the nature reserve, the plantation and the botanical garden. Places with a direct link to a colonial past.

• Gosie Vervloessem (1973, BE) lives and works in Brussels. She studied Pedagogical Sciences at the KULeuven, Audiovisual Arts at the LUCA School of Arts Brussels and Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies at a.pass. In 2010 Vervloessem began working under the name Domestic Science Club, putting together lectures, performances, workshops, recipes and installations. In 2014 the focus of Vervloessem’s work shifted to eating, digestion and indigestion. Currently she Gosie Vervloessem focuses on we-they opposition in regard to nature and its surroundings. Vervloessem’s work has been shown at Recyclart, Vooruit, Beursschouwburg, STUK, De Brakke Grond, Belluard Festival, PPPBern, Dock 11 and elsewhere.