ISSUE #9, May 2026

1. Values

In the late winter of 2025, S P I N’s co-directors gathered in a small Belgian village called Dourbes to try and formalise an ongoing process of articulating the values of the organisation. We shared what we saw as the explicit and implicit values of S P I N, and also spoke about values that we individually hold close, that might have a place in the way we lead and practice inside the organisation in the future.

From this process, a series of values emerged. These values exist as guides that help those inside S P I N to clarify their working methods and decision making, and in this sense they will always mark the horizon of any process within the organisation. You can read the values here.

2. Trust Person

In late 2025, Anastasia Tchernokondrateko came on board as S P I N’s trust person. Anastasia will create another layer to S P I N’s internal feedback and evaluation processes, by providing support for our team in periods of conflict that cannot be resolved internally, or in the case of transgressive behaviours or abuses of power. Welcome Anastasia!

3. Protests in Venice

As many artists and art workers turn their attention to the current Venice Biennale, we send our solidarity to those who are making their resistance to Israeli apartheid and occupation heard. In response to the confirmation of Israel’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition, Art Not Genocide Alliance began circulating an open letter to the directors of the Venice Biennale demanding Israel’s exclusion. They organised the biggest strike in the biennale’s history, with 26 pavilions closing, 3000 people on the streets and many speeches during the preview days.

4. Long Reads

Love, Rage & More Occupations

Following the creation of Attrito, constituent landscape for the curatorial project FUORI! (Bologna, 2022-23), Anna Rispoli was invited to contribute to the anthology Rehearsing a City for All (2025-26) recently published by Bruno and edited by Silvia Bottiroli.

In her contribution, Anna reflects on how art, agency, legality and legitimacy generate new practices across generations. You can read it here.

Within what’s most familiar, a strangeness reveals itself

After a creation process that lasted more than a decade, Hans Bryssinck felt the need to talk about both the process and his film Celestino. He invited French author and film editor Esteban Lloret Linares for several lengthy conversations. These conversations were later condensed into a text that you can read here. You can also read the original Spanish version here or a Dutch translation here.

5. News From S P I N’s Artistic Practices

Hans Bryssinck

Photo ©️ FICG / Dafne Jassafeth

Celestino, Hans’s first fiction film, celebrated its world premiere in the official competition for Best Mexican Film (Premio Mezcal) at FICG41, the renowned Guadalajara International Film Festival. A strong presence of the Mexican cast and crew marked the occasion. Although press coverage was exclusively in Spanish, we’d like to share one excerpt: 'Celestino forms part of a wider conversation about contemporary Mexican cinema. In the face of the stereotypes that often confine domestic film production to certain genres, the film presents itself as an alternative that prioritises unease over resolution.' El informador. Celestino will continue to tour on filmfestivals throughout 2026. We plan to bring the film back to a Belgian audience next season.

Watch the trailer and follow the latest news here.

Kate McIntosh

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Kate McIntosh, Worktable (2011). Photos by K.McIntosh

Kate’s work has been acquired by a museum for the first time! For over 15 years her installation Worktable has travelled the world from Yokohama to Bogota to Melbourne, visiting 53 cities and hosting thousands of participants. Now the KANAL museum has given it a permanent home in Brussels - acquiring an edition of Worktable as the very first live work to enter their collection.

Meanwhile Kate is deep in the studio conspiring towards a new stage performance - expect a premiere at the wonderful PACT Zollverein in Essen on 16 October…

And Lake Life will be in Munich this July at THINK BIG! festival.

Marnie Slater

Inspiralling installation view, with work by MYCKET, Dream Castle (2016-18), Ot Lemmens, Bulging I (2025) and Bulging III (2025), Jessica Gysel (with General Sisters, Friends of Light and Salmon Creek Farm), Makers of Their Own Time (2016-ongoing). Photo by A. Mole

Katja Mater, Clare Noonan, Jessica Gysel, Marnie Slater, Robin Brettar and Matilda Çobanli opened their collective exhibition Inspiraling at CRAC Alsace (FR) in late 2025. Inspiraling took a deep but playful dive into the collective’s working process, explored notions of artistic legacy, looked into histories of queer-feminist community building and traced the non-linear narratives of their own creative collaboration and those that inspire them. The exhibition featured guest appearances by MYCKET, Ot Lemmens, Sophy Naess, Judith Geerts, Nienke Fransen, Christine de Pizan, Rosalind Nashashibi and Anne Reijniers & Eline De Clercq, among others. You can find images of the exhibition here, and text by Els Roelandt that narrates her encounter with the exhibition here.

Marnie is currently back in the vortex of her ongoing collaboration Mothers & Daughters — A Lesbian* and Trans* Bar. organising Last Call / Dernier Verre / Laatste Ronde, a festival to celebrate and mark the end of the nine year collaboration at Beursschouwburg, Brussels, from 20 to 27 June 2026. Mothers & Daughters are also working on a publication with Girls Like Us magazine that will bring together new writing, conversations and visual works from different contributors, focussed both on tools and strategies for trans and lesbian self-organising and lessons and memories from the Mothers & Daughters’ archive. Follow Mothers & Daughters here and join the newsletter here.

Anna Rispoli

La Candidate Sans-Papiers / Anna Rispoli, Ritual of the Alliance (2025). Photo by Rita Maria Habib

After opening the exhibition Postcolonial ? with the series of reenacted speeches titled Back to voice_for those who came before, La Candidate Sans-Papiers is now preparing a major event in collaboration with the Alliance of F.O.R.T.E.S.

On 20 June 2026, After Borders: on coloniality, patriarchy and capital will transform the House of European History into a public arena where La Candidate, Territorio Domestico and Comision de migration y antiracista 8M will invite the audience and key feminist such as Rita Segato, Maria Galindo and Marta Malo to rethink the dramaturgy of migration as experienced by women with backgrounds in formerly colonised countries.

In September 2026 in Brussels, the study day Figures of fascism and anti-fascist solidarity will open with the glamorous catwalk of La Candidate in front of Forest’s City Hall, and then host mutual learning practices for PARTS students and care workers.

For those who have missed the rich discussion at BNA-BBOT about asymmetrical ethical collaborations, you can catch up here!

Anna coordinates this self-generating trajectory together with Nina Ferrante, Henriette Essami-Khaullot, Bojana Cvéjc, Emmanuelle Nizou, Teresa Gentile, Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers, Ministère du Care, Territorio Domestico, Comisiòn Antiracista 8M, La Laboratoria and many others.

Diederik Peeters

Diederik Peeters, La lampe du lac (2026). Photo by IIRRM

Last November, Confabulations opened at Schauspiel (Leipzig, DE) and at NEXT Festival at Le Phénix (Valenciennes, FR). The performance marked the end of a two-year trajectory in which Diederik and his team explored the histories of psychiatry and neurology through a series of performances and public presentations. Together, these works questioned how realities are constructed, what is considered ‘normal’, and what place society makes for neurodiversity and mental vulnerability.

After the summer, Confabulations will travel to La Bâtie Festival (Geneva, CH), Théâtre de la Cité Internationale (Paris, FR), Le Quartz (Brest, FR) and Les SUBS (Lyon, FR). Alongside the performances, Diederik and Anna Czapski will guide workshops inviting participants to imagine possible futures beyond the current ‘pathology paradigm’.

Behind the scenes, Diederik and Anna are also preparing a sequel to their research project Futurology of Cooperation, that will explore the potential links between transformative live role-playing games and mental healthcare.

In February, Diederik was also invited by the infamous Institut International de Recherche sur la Radio et la Magie to present a performance as part of a project bringing together artists and scientists exploring the depths and imaginaries of lake Geneva.

6. Farewell Emilie

We recently said farewell to Emilie Legrand, one of our office team members. Thank you Emilie for your contributions to S P I N, and we wish you all the best for your future adventures!

7. Wallets

The “Wallets” are a way that S P I N supports guest practices — offering a light yet robust administrative tool for independent artists, cultural workers, and sister organisations.

S P I N currently supports the wallets of Bolingo, Radical Hope, Ghyslaine Gau, Adva Zakai, Siemen Van Gaubergen and L’Amicale.

8. Upcoming

Click here for S P I N’s recent and upcoming dates!