Watou: Anathemata (Ex Voto)

An installation was developed in collaboration with Lee eun Young for the Watou art and poetry festival.

The poem ‘Ex Voto’ by Paul Demets is on the wall.

An ex voto is an object placed at an altar or a statue of a saint in a place of pilgrimage, a church or another sacred place, as a supplication and/or thank you to God or a saint for a favor to be obtained or received.
Votive gifts from classical antiquity are called anathemata.
We are focused on the ex voto as a body shape, part of the body, cast in wax. E.g. When a person suffers from hand problems, we make a mold on the spot into which white to yellow wax is poured. This creates a series of ex voto’s consisting of all kinds of body parts. But it can also become an abstract representation: heartbreak = heart; In the case of a non-physical cause such as Alzheimer’s, a clay mold can be made together with the person, from which a wax cast is made; e.g. brain. We worked in Watou with the residents in a temporary studio.

The form can also serve to represent healing, gratitude, or an inconvenience that one fears in the future.
As a unit, the entire collection will demonstrate strong expressiveness.

‘Every wish, hope and gratitude as a collection,
is like a battery, charged with the energy of the people’

We want to take the installation, approximately 70 objects, out of the religious, as practice often shows: more of a ritual or local cultural expression. Hence the collection does not need to be placed in a sacred space. We also see any location in Watou or beyond, as part of the festival, as a sacred place; dedicated in the context of visual arts.

Year / Years:2024

2024