Evening visit at Wiels, D POSSESSIONS by Danai Anesiadou

The exhibition D POSSESSIONS lures us into an allegorical scenography. Like a modern-day exorcist, Danai Anesiadou attempts to purge and transform not only her material possessions but also the energy flows vibrating around us.

For her WIELS exhibition, Anesiadou attempts to encase the entirety of her material possessions: household objects, shoes and clothes, prized belongings—everything is solidified in exuberant assemblages made from resin and large quantities of metal shards. At its core is a desire to rid herself of all personal belongings by converting them into orgonites. These energy-transforming devices, originating from the theories of the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), are meant to capture a cosmic ‘orgone’ current, transmute it into positive life energy and then disperse it.

Producing these ‘healing’ orgonites is however an inherently toxic process, a ‘contradictio in terminis’ which is not lost on Anesiadou. The time of the exhibition, WIELS is transformed into a ghost busting pressure cooker, compelling the audience to a restorative reset.

Over the last fifteen years, Danai Anesiadou (GR/BE) has developed a range of metaphysical and personal concerns into a seductive and mercurial body of work referencing cinema, occult sciences, Greek antiquity and contemporary affairs. Her work is highly perceptive to both the political and the invisible fabric of reality. Armed with a keen interest in historiography and deep politics, she questions what we consider to be true, pointing to the double standards and false dichotomies of the dominant discourse.