{"id":49869,"date":"2025-06-05T11:08:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T10:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/?p=49869"},"modified":"2025-06-05T11:08:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T10:08:43","slug":"festival-boutures-returns-to-la-balsamine-xeno-curates-a-bold-exploration-of-mental-health-and-systemic-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/en\/2025\/06\/05\/festival-boutures-returns-to-la-balsamine-xeno-curates-a-bold-exploration-of-mental-health-and-systemic-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival Boutures Returns to La Balsamine: Xeno- Curates a Bold Exploration of Mental Health and Systemic Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On June 6 and 7, La Balsamine Theatre in Brussels will host the second edition of its Festival Boutures, an event dedicated to expanding artistic horizons and sparking collective reflection. This year, the festival invites the dynamic Xeno- platform to take over its programming, focusing on the vital intersection between mental health and systemic inequalities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Space for Imagination and Collective Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festival Boutures is more than an event<\/a>\u2014it’s an invitation. Each year, La Balsamine hands over the reins to a collective, encouraging them to transform the end of the season into a unique bouquet of artistic expression. The result is a fertile ground for new processes, wild ideas, and communal celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2025, the honor goes to Xeno-, an itinerant artistic platform and practical research laboratory founded in 2019 by Ichraf Nasri and M\u00e9lanie Peduzzi. Rooted in Brussels, Xeno- is committed to intersectional feminist questions and to amplifying the voices of artists who escape hegemonic masculinity and whiteness. The collective was born from the urgent need to address the underrepresentation of women, racialized, queer, and non-binary artists in the arts scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mental Health and Systemic Violence: A Collective Response<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 6 and 7, Xeno- will curate two days of workshops, performances, talks, and screenings, all centered on the complex relationships between mental health and systemic oppression. The festival will ask urgent questions: What structural violence weighs on our minds? How do systems of oppression\u2014racism, sexism, capitalism, imperialism\u2014shape our psychological suffering?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Xeno- goes beyond diagnosis. Their vision for Festival Boutures is a collective act of resistance, highlighting experiences and care practices rooted in decolonial, antiracist, and anticapitalist feminist struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Rich and Diverse Program<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival will feature around fifteen events, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n