A series of talks and workshops
21-29 October 2026 at Decoratelier
Kortrijkstraat 47, 1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Brussels
Curated by Colm mac Aoidh and Jeroen Peeters with contributions by Michiel De Cleene, Fiona Hallinan, Kate Briggs, Eva Moulaert (Dear Reader,) and Decoratelier
A project of Decoratelier, realised with the support of KANAL – Centre Pompidou and the Flemish Community
How we imagine and inhabit shared spaces is shaped by the site as we find it: its history, the height of the roof, the neighbours, the seasons, the conversations and encounters taking place there. As practitioners, we cannot separate our work from the context that has made it possible – as Madeline Gins writes in Word Rain, “it comes with a room, light, a country, sky and weather.”
Experimenting with questions around site-specificity is at the heart of Decoratelier’s practice of ‘expanded scenography’. Doing Words Making Space creates an environment for research, reflection and speculation through a series of talks and workshops that take place within an evolving scenography.
A range of invited guests explore the translation of practices, methods and vocabularies between fields such as adaptive reuse, photography, visual arts, dramaturgy and writing. They each take their cues from a specific verb that describes an element of their practice. We invite you to join us at the intersection of architecture and storytelling as we pick up these verbs to explore their potential.
What perspectives open up when a practice migrates from one field to another? Can embodying verbs in a manner other than intended enable new possibilities for spatial practice? How do we then look differently at what is already there? And what alternative ways of thinking and making might this reveal?
Programme
Wednesday 21.10.2026, 18:00 – 20:00
TALK by Colm mac Aoidh | Making-with, Making-do
TALK by Michiel De Cleene | Approaching the Surface: Three Superficial Stories from Construction Sites
Thursday 22.10.2026, 10:00 – 16:30
WORKSHOP by Michiel De Cleene | To approach: A veil of documents
Friday 23.10.2026, 18:00 – 20:00
FILM SCREENING by Fiona Hallinan | Making Dust
TALK by Fiona Hallinan | Paying Attention to Endings: An Introduction to Ultimology
Saturday 24.10.2026, 10:00-16:30
WORKSHOP by Fiona Hallinan | A Means without an End: Profanation as Play
Wednesday 28.10.2026, 18:00-20:00
TALK by Jeroen Peeters | Staging and inhabiting: articulating practices and modes of attention
TALK by Kate Briggs | The sun had not yet risen: on lighting writing
Thursday 29.10.2026, 10:00-16:30
WORKSHOP by Kate Briggs | To light
For more information and to register, visit www.decoratelier.be.