The Bolster

De Bolster is a facility for adults with intellectual disabilities or non-congenital brain damage. In their wool workshop in Gavere, under the guidance of Christa Verspeeten and Marjorie De Smet, they transform raw wool into works of art. It is a slow and traditional process in which rhythm, repetition and touch create space for tranquillity, (self-)development and connection.

At Kunst & Zwalm, they presented the work Soft Bodies. The installation, constructed from felted forms, approaches the body as a landscape: porous, layered and elusive. Here, there are no clearly defined identities, but forms that surrender to gravity, to the earth, to time. The bodies lie and rest. They seem buried, or are they just coming to life? Wool also functions as a natural soil improver. The bodies that make up the work thus slowly merge with their surroundings. In this way, the installation invites slow viewing, feeling with the eyes.