Huskrooms is a traveling installation activated through performances and unfolding organically via interactions with its surroundings and participants. Comprising carefully collected and reworked textiles, the artwork interweaves relationally—like a living organism—with the space, people, weather, textures, and materials of its temporary location.
The artwork aims to create a space for self-encounter, shared environment, and collective action. It invites a slower perception of time and offers an 'offline' experience. What do we allow to exist? How quickly do we discard things—objects, and people?
In a world where the relentless pursuit of progress often sidelines rituals and shared narratives, Huskrooms seeks to carve out moments for reflection and stillness, where movement and transformation can emerge spontaneously, and feelings of grief, farewell, and mourning become tangible.
The project aims to "dress" people anew—restoring warmth, protection, and a sense of humanity. Through textile objects such as blankets and structures made from hundreds of sewn-together sleeves and pant legs, an ingeniously constructed living environment emerges, inviting collaboration, dynamic interaction, and collective discovery.
The participatory nature of Huskrooms aligns with the artistic principles of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Just as in her work, the physical and emotional experience of the individual in relation to the group is central. The project functions as a platform for connection, experimentation, and the rediscovery of the everyday, blurring the boundary between art and life.
The research is currently being developed at the Dr. Guislain Museum, in collaboration with other artists and thinkers, and is made possible with the financial support of Kunstendecreet (Flanders State of the Arts), research grant 2024–2026.
February - March 2023, Art residency at psychosocial center Sint-Alexius with Workspacebrussels and Kaosvzw, Brussels (BE)
March 2, 2023, Artist talk at Dr. Guislain Museum with guest speakers Geert Opsomer and Rona Kennedy, Ghent (BE)
September 25 - 29 2023, Research at the reception area of the youth psychiatric center Dr. Guislain - Frioretti and De Steiger, in collaboration with Lucina Ra and residents, Ghent (BE)
March 24 - 31 2024, Art residency with visual artist Elsa Mencagli and theater maker Paula Diogo, supported by Apap Feminist Futures and Centrum W Ruchu, Warsaw (PL)
February 2024 - 2026, Residency and artistic interventions at Dr. Guislain Museum, in collaboration with Kito Kotsoane (multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer), Julie Rodeyns (curator, mediator, researcher, consultant, and trainer, Through Art We Care), Rona Kennedy (multidisciplinary artist), Henny Baeken (body-oriented therapist), with contributions from Robinia Kersten (textile artist), Lucina Ra (theater group), and Lieselot Siddiki (theater maker and performer).
April 26 - 27 2025, Presentation Huskrooms at Open Studio's with Workspacebrussels and the support of Kaaitheater, on public square in Brussels, with Kito Kotsoane, Brussels (BE)
May 1 - 31 2025, Residency at Metropolitan Fukujusou, Kyoto (JP)
September 29 - October 10 2025, Residency, BUDA, Kortrijk (BE)
Walking Over In Your Oldest Shoes
Meeting Ancestors Seabottomflowers
Knowing What’s From Whom
Ripping Veils in Splendid Shreds of Doom
Under Braided Branches Regaining Power
For Oldtimes Sake Cutting Cordless Compounds loose
- by Henny Baeken
Finding sheltering shell-selves
on harmless whistled
scareless scarless fingertips
Half-armed leaning defines
the broken chair chains
of goodness interferes
Bending the stuffed toy necks
next to the one-eyed winding ups
is there in blinking eyes
The newborn’s glaze
the breastfeeding of mankind’s
mammals with enigmatic weeds of wisdom’s
Care
- by Henny Baeken