En Rachâchant
solo exhibition
Vleeshal
13 September 2015 – 13 December 2015

The exhibition borrows its title from the film En rachâchant by Jean‑Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. The film draws on the children’s story Ah Ernesto! by Marguerite Duras and follows the schoolboy Ernesto who refuses to attend school with unwavering conviction because the school insists on teaching him things he does not know.

Echoing this gesture, the exhibition approaches refusal and negation as unlikely tools for learning. At a moment when educational systems are increasingly shaped by market logic and by the demand, that knowledge prove its economic usefulness, En Rachâchant proposes a playful and slightly absurd counterposition.

The exhibition unfolds as a stage populated by sculptures, drawings and mixed media works that revisit disobedience as a form of inquiry. Motifs of hesitation, doubt and playful resistance circulate through the installation.

As part of the project, Vasiljeva developed a short educational programme consisting of The Course in Lying and The Course in Doubt. These sessions become part of the museum’s educational programme during the exhibition, where they are exercised, adapted and occasionally reimagined with young participants.