Crisette

Crisis Crisette  

Well I was in a quandary, crisis on the cr(o)isette – the wild exhibition on board and off board the Tenace and other boats moored along the canal at Ouiscerque near Tubize… I had been enthusiastic about another wild expo as we did way back when the boat was moored at Péruwelz – but then the heat melted my brain and even in my locked-down corona bubble I could not come up with a viable concept let alone a simple idea – the lightbulb kind, just plain on/off… not even that! The heat had melted by circuits and I was but just a dud for a week…

(and then went and made it worse with a non-AC-road-trip under the blazing sun)

So by the time I got back to the boat, the exhibition was already in full swing: various artists had augmented Rurik’s “Dobberman” that had set the pace on the national holiday (pomme pomme) and now it would probably be tricky to get an entry in sideways…  Tina Jacobs had continued to work on her series of paintings from during the trip- whence also she lost some to Peruwelzian Hooligans in the forest – and now they were securely displayed under deck where the riff-raff couldn’t get at them… and were perfect with view of the embankment to match – then a semaphore-flagpole full of modified T-shirts by Leo Reynders, choose your pick of colours and designs, along with drawings and the current Albanian mail-art project… a plein-air interpretation of the Tenacity Travel agency- clouds and skies the limit for any covid-artist… then along the crisis-croissette itself various concoctions of all-sorts making for a festive avenue where before there was just towpath and sweltering heat – now tents and chairs and tables and a general atmosphere of fruity, juicy Rosy refreshments hand, foot and sweat & sweet made in the preceding juicy sweat shop Limo Sweatshop…

 

…further along May Leenaerts catches us in a web of reanimation and a whole slew of boats participate – I (see reportage on boottenace.wordpress.com for full coverage)… I venture into the hull of ‘La Nave Va’ photo-studio-boat and sorcery-meet – herbs and nettles await the experimental cookery… Sophie Rétif’s haunt – also ‘Tosca’, ‘San Antony’, ‘Valois’ and ‘Elysée’ are part of the crisette offering – too much to take in all at once… the installation of ‘Bleu Fort’ though gave me a bit of a kick to get inspired – as did also the fantastic foldable boat that was moored alongside tenace: one of those old-style canvas and wood efforts to be used as kayak, rowing-boat, sailing-boat – a true modular watercraft! Also seeing a mother and wee child (on her back) swimming across the canal to join the goings on on the bank was inspirational: all we have to do is just do it!