Wed 31.07.24
Charter Cripping the Space
16%-24% of the population has a disability. That group is currently inadequately represented in the current arts sector. During TheaterFestival 2023, Cripping the Space – a grassroots movement for artists, cultural workers with disabilities – presented their charter for a more accessible cultural sector.
Door hTF
The charter was written by:
Marijn Prakke, actor trained at the RITCS in Brussels, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Atlantic Acting School in New York. Through various theater roles and experiences, Marijn became interested in what happens to a role when it is played by an apparently inappropriate body. His experience is that the spectator’s imagination is stretched and thus it suddenly becomes possible, for example in everyday life, to imagine someone with a disability in a certain social role. From here he conducted research for Antwerp Conservatory of Music and Kunstenpunt.
Josefien Cornette (she/he) is an artist, art historian and activist. Josefien has a multidisciplinary practice with a background in art history, feminism, queer studies and disability studies. In 2021, Josefien won the DiverGent Thesis Prize with “A House Called Pain,” a poetic autoethnography about death, grief and disability. Today she guides artists and the cultural sector in more accessible art practices to translate artistic work crip and is a board member at Sophia vzw.
Fien Criel is a political scientist and earned a master’s degree in Conflict and Development from UGent, with a thesis on inclusion policies for students with disabilities. She was part of the Young Board of Viernulvier. From the experience as a cultural worker and collaborator on socially inclusive policies, she researches accessibility in Brussels and Ghent from urban space, queer criticism and dysabiltiy studies.
Mira Bryssinck graduated from KASK in Ghent. She made a first theatrical performance Utopia (with people with dual diagnosis problems connected to the meeting center Villa Voortman) which played at Theater Aan Zee and at Frascati in Amsterdam, among others. Then she made together with Jan Marcoen Letter, a performance for HETGEVOLG in Turnhout. In 2019, she made the solo performance Glory Box with Compagnie Cecilia. Bryssinck starred in the much-discussed television series Tytgat Chocolat, which won the Prix Europa and the Diversity Award at Cannes. Bryssinck tries to approach her subjects with lightness and always looks for strong physical play.
Anna Püschel is an artist based out of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. After a master’s degree in visual arts (LUCA, Ghent) and documentary photography (Sint Joost, Breda), she went through several residencies all over Europe, from which she recently created and published “Encyclopedia of the uncertain.”
Joyce Vuylsteke is a social worker and from Staging Acess vzw supports numerous cultural houses, organizations and theater productions in Flanders and Brussels towards more accessibility from a practical reality, true to their artistic character. Joyce works from an international theater experience and strong experiential expertise.
The charter came about with the support of Kunstenpunt, social Fonds Podiumkunsten, het Theaterfestival and numerous Flemish-Brussels culture houses.