Dolle Mina-Revival: With a covered wagon ride, artist Mirthe Berentsen questions the nuclear family

A covered wagon drives through the center of Utrecht, pulled through two Frisian horses. A gigantic inflatable mother hangs on the back. Conversations are held in the covered wagon about what the family may or may not be. After it a procession of various plumage. The procession is part of Beyond the Nuclear Family (‘Beyond the nuclear family’) The newest project by artist and writer Mirthe Berentssen.

The kick-off has just been in the Centraal Museum, where the exhibition Good Mom/Bad Mom You can see about motherhood and now the procession goes to the Stadsschouwburg, where participants after a joint dinner the theater performance Battlefield of Dreamsabout taboos around children, from Floor Houwink ten Cate will look at.

With this covered wagon, Berentssen tours throughout the Netherlands, from Amsterdam to Gorssel, Groningen and Kolderveen from 22 May. The artist and writer – a book will be published at DAS later this year, We have to talk about the family – was inspired by the covered wagon ride of the feminist collective Dolle Mina. They traveled through the Netherlands in 1972 to stimulate the conversation about physical integrity, family structures and abortion – themes that are still relevant today.

« I don’t want to copy the trip from the 1970s: that was done then, » says Berentssen. But the idea of ​​triggering stuck ideas about the family with a journey that lasted. « During the Coronapandemie, the World Economic Forum calculated that gender inequality had increased enormously because women stayed at home and care tasks in themselves than men. That was the start of a huge conservative backlash, » said Berentsen, who wrote about this in this Free Netherlands. All the more reason to take to the street.

“I grew up in the Achterhoek, and the horse and wagon were always an important one Rite de Passage In my life, « says Berentssen. » Countless children’s parties are celebrated on it, it transported newlywed couples and when my father died his box was transported on the cart to the cemetery. « 

Safety

The hood has different layers of meaning for Berentssen. « It is a kind of cover, a tent or a womb. It is a protective house that keeps everything together. That creates an illusion of safety, a moving and temporary at home. The Dolle Mina’s kept a logbook in which they kept the discussed conversations. I want to make a log of textile that becomes an autonomical work. »

Visitors to the events can bring a piece of material that has a personal meaning for them. Berentssen will merge the pieces into a patchwork, which will eventually form a new hood – the fabric part over the cart. « I want to make a patchwork of stories that emphasizes collectivity, a counterfeit of the romantic idea of ​​the individual artist as an autonomous genius. »

Beyond the Nuclear Family I see as a laboratory, an exercise in the solution

Berentsens Criticism of the traditional nuclear family stems from a personal family history. « My grandmother came from a strict Catholic family in Limburg, she had fourteen children to good Catholic use. When her youngest child was still a baby, my grandfather died. Suddenly she was a family-off. While she had done everything as intended! From then on she was looked at with the neck. »

Her grandma raised this situation in an interview with the Zutphense Couriersixty years ago. « The head was: » Society is only set up for full families. « I actually say exactly the same again. Actually it is terrible that I have to take to the streets again for the same. »

She emphasizes that her system criticism is not a personal attack on the family. « I have completed an IVF process for years to have a child, I love my family. Some family abolitionists want to completely abolish the family. I want nothing to do with that. I want to question its naturally. The nuclear family of a male, female and two children is not the only or most » natural « form of living together, says Berentssen.

« The word » family « descends etymologically from » ghesinde, « explains Berentssen. « A traveling company, often consisting of higher -ranking people with a court who traveled like this. But what if we reclaim the word ‘family’? What else can it mean in addition to the nuclear family in a single -family home? A self -selected family, a group of ‘ghesindes’ with whom you want to travel the same trip? »

Public space

« The house is the most dangerous place for women and children to live, » says Berentssen. « Where most violence takes place. » She refers to biologist Frans de Waal, who investigated why rape under monkeys is rare. « His explanation why it does happen among people is because we have withdrawn to our houses. » Behind the front door is the private domain that withdraws from social control.

Beyond the Nuclear Family Logically, had to take place in the public space. On a banner it says: « house out, street on ».

Berentsen: « Bumping in the cart and the people with whom you are that day is your family at that time, you are responsible for that. You wait for each other and help each other cross the way. » In the center of Utrecht, sometimes with annoyance but especially with curiosity, the spa -riding covered wagon is responded to. Berentssen wears a black cape with white horses on it and cheerfully hands out cards to passers -by.

« Progress is not a straight line, » says Berentssen. « Often people ask me: but what you want then? Beyond the Nuclear Family I see as a laboratory, an exercise in the solution. Together, let’s try for a moment what could be possible if we don’t think in the limitation but in the possibility.  »

« I wish my daughter more, instead of less. More freedom, more self -determination, more choice. Which way do we want to take together? » In front of the traffic light, the horses are eagerly eager. Then the procession slowly starts moving again.

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