As a Mother, ... Kaaitheater & NTGent

Which images, ideas and ideals exist about motherhood?
What do mothers (not) pass on?
Who can be a mother?
and… How To Be Many Mothers?

Poet and feminist Adrienne Rich reaches out to us in her book: On Women Born  (1976), with the concepts of motherhood and mothering, distinguishing between the institution of ‘motherhood’, which is largely defined by patriarchal systems, and the verb ‘mothering’, which focuses on the practice of caring itself. The pair of concepts helps us reflect on images, ideas and ideals around motherhood.

As a Mother, ...  is a two-part programme with performances, encounters, rituals and conversations, curated by Kaaitheater and NTGent. Together we present the performance When the Bleeding Stops, and on 5 April we are happy to invite you to ‘une journee composée’, a day of meetings, conversations, rituals around the central question: ‘How to Be Many Mothers?’. We will announce the full programme in January 2025, but we are already giving away that Stille Tafel — A Ritual for the Unborn by Barbara Raes & Beyond the Spoken will be experienced in Ghent for the first time in this contex

The title As a Mother, ...  was inspired by an op-ed piece in the British newspaper Independant. In it, an unwanted childless columnist points to these three little words, behind which there is a world of prejudice, idealisation, standards and universality. Three little words often used to exclude people who are not biological mothers from all kinds of valued qualities such as empathy.