​A Mending

 

​

05/08/2021

online & Anderlecht, Brussels (BE)

​

Kintsugi is a Japanese technique in which broken pottery is repaired with a gold-colored glue. The goal is to make fracture lines visible instead of trying to cover them up, thus creating a different relationship with injuries. A scar as a testimony to a healing process and the self-healing capacity of the body. The intervention on a wall of the Scheut residential care center is a reminder of this.

 

The Belgian government was accused by Amnesty International of violating human rights in Belgian residential care centers between the period of March and October 2020. An investigative report was published that states that the right to health, the right to life and the prohibition of discrimination were not respected. For example: during the first lockdown the residents were denied any form of visit, the workload of the staff was too high to meet all the physical and mental needs of the elderly. The Covid-19 pandemic is a source of suffering for these and many other groups; a suffering that still remains largely under the radar. The virus is still part of the day-to-day life and tends to make us resist and contain its effects rather than create space and focus for deep recovery.  Collective healing must wait until the virus is contained. 

 

A Mending draws attention to the need for healing that is no longer delayed. Acknowledging the wound gets the healing process started. Do we agree to construct a society in which we are selectively blind to those who can no longer stand up for themselves? Do the consequences of structural underinvestment in soft sectors like health care show themselves all the more harshly in a crisis like this? Are we succeeding in decoupling things again and putting the humane before the economic?