Kjér mo ekè were

a unifying project for the community during the Kunstenfestival Watou

Helena Cnockaert’s project ‘Kjér mo ekè were’ (‘Come back’) tries to mediate between the high-brow (visual) language of an international art scene and the dialect of the inhabitants in the specific context of the arts festival in Watou. Her work serves as a translation of conversations she had with residents of Watou in the recent months. In this context, art seemed to be too abstract of a topic for discussion. For this reason, Cnockaert asked residents to describe an physically existing object from their memory that touched them. She then interpreted each conversation into a textile object purely based on each resident’s description, after which she returned with this elaboration to the residents, where a new dialogue was initiated through a process of translation and reinterpretation. Taking time, talking and especially listening is the process used to visualize what had previously remained hidden between the folds of time.