Threads of Wellbeing 2025 (EN)

CALL

Share your experience, wish, thought, (diary) fragment, (protest) slogan, or insight about your relationship with wellbeing — in the broadest sense of the word.
Wellbeing is "the state in which nothing is lacking and in which one feels good" (Van Dale). This call highlights wellbeing as something changeable and unequally: a state of (dis)harmony without a fixed destination — a borderland shaped and influenced by environmental factors, work, position, health, and loss.

Already Submitted:

I MISS THE VIEW

TO BE SEEN NOT TO BE BELIEVED

© Stad Gent

LETTING GO ALSO BRINGS NEW THINGS

APPARENTLY, YOU CAN RUN ON DENIAL AND ADRENALINE FOR A WHILE

BENEATH MY SKIN ARE HUNDREDS OF STORIES

THE OUTSIDE WORLD SEES MY WIFE AS ALWAYS, BUT AT HOME SHE'S GONE

I STILL CARRY YOU

LYME DISEASE IS A THIEF OF MY PHYSICAL FREEDOM

SMARTLAP IN DA HOUSE

RECLAIMING POTPOURRI OF EMOTIONS

INVISIBLE HERITAGE

AS LONG AS THE WORD ‘AUTISM’ ONLY SOUNDS MASCULINE, WOMEN WILL REMAIN MISUNDERSTOOD

TO ACT LIKE EVERYTHING’S PEACHES AND CREAM

how to submit

➔ Email: info@saarswinters.be
➔ Instagram: DM @saarswinters
➔ Anonymous: via the comment box at the bottom of this page
➔ By post: Museum Dr. Guislain, attn. Saar Swinters / Threads of Wellbeing
Jozef Guislainstraat 43B, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
➔ Visit in person:
– June 8 and June 14, 2025 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
– During Psychojazz: July 4, 5, and 6 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM) Psychojazz 2025
Both events take place in the inner garden of Museum Dr. Guislain (Jozef Guislainstraat 43B, 9000 Ghent)

THREADS OF WELLBEING

Threads of Wellbeing is a (textile) installation in public space that grows through participation and the archiving of inner dialogues. The space is shaped by your contributions and explores the conceptual and visual dimensions of wellbeing – the boundary between inner and outer worlds, between body and system.

This research connects wellbeing to societal issues, creates space for reflection and collective healing, and challenges us to question the power structures behind our understanding of wellbeing. It is based on the idea that navigating this spectrum is often an internal and silent process, while optimal functioning and prosperity are upheld as the norm.

The installation unfolds between May and July 2025 in the courtyard of the Dr. Guislain Museum, Gent, Belgium

WHY WHAT BROUGHT ME HERE

In 2024, I was diagnosed with Long Covid (Post-Covid), a chronic multisystem disease that changed my daily functioning and future outlook. Even before that, my work already moved at the intersection of textile art, social design, and threshold moments.