How do we form a modern matrimony? Together with Espace Pasolini in Valenciennes and the trio Bryana Fritz, Stefa Govaart and Chloé Chignell, we present a focus programme around the history and role of historical and contemporary beguines. Inspired by the work of Marguerite Porete, we will create a focus week filled with workshops, lectures, a performance and a mystical closing party.

PROGRAMME FRIDAY 21 MARCH / VALENCIENNES

12:00 departure bus to Valenciennes

13:30 – Visit to the beguinage + Jesuit library

14:30 – Reception at l’Espace Pasolini

15:00 – Lectures by Audrey Coudevylle, Friar Remy Vallejo and Sylvain Piron

Audrey Coudevylle is a lecturer in French language and literature at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, specialising in the study of chanson. Her current research focuses on contemporary singers seeking a realistic aesthetic, particularly in the expression of assertive eroticism. From women as erotic objects to women as eroticising subjects, Audrey Coudevylle investigates emancipatory strategies of meaning in literature, poetry and song.

Dominican friar Rémy Valléjo is an art historian and author of books and essays on Rhenish mysticism, art and theatre. He is also director of the cultural centre lesdominicains in Lille and creator of the programme lumièresdunord to promote the spiritual heritage of the countries of the North.

Sylvain Piron is a medievalist, director at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and responsible editor of Vues de l’esprit. He specialises in medieval intellectual and religious history from the twelfth to the fourteenth century.

18:00 – Break

Possibility to eat something on the spot

19:30 – Workshop presentation

>> From Kortrijk, we organise a bus to Valenciennes that will drop you off in Kortrijk in the evening, departure at BK6 at 12h sharp: book your free place for the day programme + bus here!

21:00 – Departure bus to Kortrijk

PROGRAMME SATURDAY 22 MARCH / KORTRIJK

15:00 – Apolline Vranken: From beguinages to modern architecture

lecture in French – simultaneous translation into Dutch

Since 2014, architect Apolline Vranken has engaged with the Cercle Féministe at ULB with a focus on the relationship between gender and equal rights in and on public spaces. Her guided tour of the Beguinage focuses on the history of the beguines and the beguinages as just about the most important examples of matrimony, and how they continue to inspire innovative forms of cohabitation today.

16:30 – Lecture by Rita Fenendael & Áron Birtalan

in Dutch and English

Rita Fenendael is an expert on Beguines and emeritus at UCLouvain in Germanic languages, philosophy and theology. As a proto-beguine, she bridges the gap between the beguines of the past and the present: what does it mean to live as a beguine and what is their advice to modern beguines?

Áron Birtalan is an artist, musician and theology student whose work explores the languages of pleasure and fear between angel, creature and computer. Hen connects 13th-century texts by lay writers and mystics such as Hadewych and Marguerite Porete with contemporary voices in dance, participatory and relational practices and contemporary radical theology. In a panel debate with Rita Fenendael and the audience present, Áron will explore collectivity and intimacy in mystical texts.

18:30 – 19:30 Break

Opportunity to eat something

19:30 – BEGIN/The Mirror by Bryana Fritz, Chloé Chignell & Stefa Govaart

dance performance

Buy your ticket for the performance here.

21:00 – La nuit des Béguines / Night of the Beguines

Closing party with Áron Birtalan and Rabbits are people too in collaboration with the residents of the beguinage

Under the name Rabbits Are People Too, Lisa Debeerst creates visual work inspired by iconography, imagination, heritage, folk art and Catholicism. La nuit des béguines hovers between everyday ritual, performance and hangout, but above all it is a delightful feminist celebration!

WANT MORE?

From 17 to 19 March, Bryana Fritz, Chloe Chignell and Stefa Govaart organise an artistic workshop around free-thinking: a combination of contemplative and engaged practice, rediscovering the legacy of the beguines and focusing on a previously misunderstood matrimony.

At Espace Pasolini, Valenciennes
Info and registration