BETWEEN US
BETWEEN US vzw is a platform cocreated by Anyuta Wiazemsky Snauwaert and Kim Snauwaert, who both work in the (audio-) visual arts and theater. This platform allows us to develop our artistic practices, starting from a joint vision on engagement based on empathy.
Anyuta Wiazemsky Snauwaert (1989) is a multimedia artist, photographer and curator. She graduated from Law Academy in Moscow, Russia before deciding to pursue an artistic career. She studied Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. Her works have been shown in Amsterdam (NL), Antwerp (BE), Brussels (BE), Ghent (BE), Hyderabad (IN), Kortrijk (BE), Leuven (BE), Moscow (RU), Murcia (ES), Ostend (BE), Rotterdam (NL), ...
Foto: Wouter Van Vooren
Kim Snauwaert (1886) is a Belgian artist and actress. She graduated from the University of Ghent, as an art historian specialised in Theatre studies, with a minor in ethics. In addition, she successfully obtained a degree in Fine Arts, at KASK, School Of Arts Ghent. Her work has been shown in Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Lucca, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Sidney, NYC, Cleveland, Amsterdam, …
Foto: Kaat Pype
MISSION
BETWEEN US is Anyuta Wiazemsky Snauwaert and Kim Snauwaert, who both work in visual arts, theater and film.
We have a joint vision on generosity and responsibility, social involvement and engagement based on empathy.
Anyuta has artistic and curatorial practice and is interested in how arts and banality of everyday life intertwine and influence each other.
Kim’s artistic practice focuses on how to make space for things, people and situations that exist outside a normative framework.
VISION
BETWEEN US there is space for our joint projects and for our individual projects.
It is our way of contributing to a sustainable society that extends beyond the relationship between the two of us. In this way we will continue to work together in a structural manner without the need for a third party.
BETWEEN US is a platform to professionalize ourselves as individual artists and to position ourselves in the landscape, it is a way to free up space for the creation and distribution of new work, to set up our own projects and commissioned projects and to expand our network. to expand further.
Miss Sympathie
theater research / ontwikkeling
"Meisje, meisje, als je valt, altijd iets van maken."
- Sonia Gaskell -
This theater research is a portrait of Li and the emotional and physical abuse she experienced within various juvenile institutions. Miss Sympathie is a piece about loss during childhood.Li is my sister. The narrative is generous. The tone is dark. The humor present.
This portrait is about survival, about not belonging anywhere and still finding your place. It's about dealing with life, about how easily things get out of hand, how everything simultaneously does and does not work out. A story about helicopters, heartbreak and finger stains on ivory white curtains.
Het dorp waar we wonen bestaat voornamelijk uit boeren maar onze vader is een zwaantje. Dat is een politieagent op een moto. Hij heeft vaak last van slaapwandelen. Zo gebeurt het dat hij soms om 5:00 's nachts zijn politiepak aantrekt, tot aan zijn helm toe, en door het huis dwaalt. Om te voorkomen dat hij iets gevaarlijks doet, tilt onze moeder hem slapend op en draagt hem in haar armen de trap op, terug de slaapkamer in. Zoals net gehuwden elkaar over de drempel dragen, maar dan met een helm. En vaker. Je zou kunnen denken dat dat liefde is.
In 1993 wint Rani De Coninck de Miss Belgium Beauty Wedstrijd. Een ander meisje van 26 met een wollen paarse trui en blonde highlights grijpt naast de titel. Zij wordt gekroond tot ‘Miss Sympathie’. Dat is een titel die wordt uitgereikt aan de sympathiekste Miss. Onze vader vindt haar zo sympathiek dat hij wegtrekt uit ons huis en huurt met haar een appartement met zicht op zee. Soms duwt hij haar op de keukentafel en dan trekt zij haar perfecte benen op en slaat die om hem heen. Ze lachen en kussen met tong terwijl de zee op de achtergrond hard tegen de dijk slaat. Wij hebben zoiets romantisch nooit gezien. Behalve dan in The Sound of Music wanneer Maria blozend in de ogen kijkt van de kapitein terwijl ze walsen op een nazifeest en dat zeker liefde is.
Wanneer Li 6 is, draait ze met de gestolen sleutel het slot van de snoepjeskast open om de zelfgemaakte advocaat van onze moeder uit te lepelen. Onderbroken door een vreemd geluid loopt ze naar het hoekraam en ziet hoe een reusachtig helikopter-ding recht uit de hemel komt en lijkt te willen landen in de tuin. Het toestel vliegt af en toe bruusk terug de lucht in en komt zo gevaarlijk dicht bij de zijgevel. Hakkelend raakt het ding de grond, precies op het stukje waar vroeger de zandbak stond. Een moment lang gebeurt er niets. Alles staat stil, behalve het kort geschoren gras. Dan klapt de helikopterdeur open en gebukt uit het toestel komt onze vader. Hij zwaait blij naar haar. Li kijkt verbaasd naar onze moeder die rechts naast haar is komen staan, met halfopen mond. Zij lacht niet. Ze beveelt alle gordijnen te sluiten en binnen te blijven. Voor één keer mogen onze vingers de ivoorwitte gordijnen aanraken.
Op 10 dec 2022 kopt De Morgen: “Zes voormalige bestuurders van Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) zijn door het hof van beroep in Gent veroordeeld tot het betalen van schadevergoedingen van in totaal 655 miljoen euro, te verdelen onder ongeveer 4.000 burgerlijke partijen. Jaren geleden waren dat er meer dan 10.000, maar we zijn 20 jaar verder: er zijn mensen overleden, en anderen hebben de handdoek gegooid. De enige beklaagden die nog hoofdelijk aansprakelijk waren, zijn de zes bestuurders die ook veroordeeld werden voor fraude. Naast Jo Lernout en Pol Hauspie gaat het om Nico Willaert, Gaston Bastiaens, Carl Dammekens en Tony Snauwaert.” Die laatste is onze vader.
Videofragment waar mijn zus vertelt over de periode waarin zij in een jeugdinstelling terecht kwam: https://vimeo.com/915312323
In 2021 nam Li deel aan ‘Belgium Got Talent’. Ze eindigde met een paaldansact in de semi-finales https://www.hln.be/video/productie/lisa-en-chloe-worden-mythische-paaldansgodinnen-261679-261679
Credits |
concept en regie: Kim Snauwaert
dramaturgie: Simon Baetens
choreografie: Charlotte Vanden Eynde
beeldend: Ika Schwander
performance: Lisa Snauwaert, Hendrik Van Doorn
met de steun van: De Grote Post, C-takt, Monty, De Brakke Grond, CAMPO
On April 1, 2022, after ten years of living in Belgium, Anyuta was finally able to write this sentence: “I declare my intention to become a Belgian citizen and will adhere to the Constitution, the laws of the Belgian people, and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.” This was the first (and the only) moment in their entire process of becoming Belgian that felt somewhat ceremonial.
Sitting in the administrative center of Gent Zuid, Anyuta submitted their application for Belgian citizenship. The procedure was simple but oddly detached: they had to wait six months for a letter. If they received a registered letter, it was bad news. If they got a regular letter, it was good news. And if no letter came at all, that was good news too. In the meantime, a local police officer visited Anyuta. Expecting an interrogation, they studied the national anthem in three languages, but the officer only confirmed their address and didn’t ask a thing about the anthem.
By October, they hadn’t received any letters. Anyuta called the administrative center and was told that... they had become Belgian! They were thrilled. Yet a few weeks later, unsure if there was more to the process, they called again, only to be told there was no record of them becoming Belgian. So, Anyuta wasn’t Belgian after all. Weeks later, they finally reached someone who assured them everything was in order, and they just needed to wait for a letter. Sure enough, a letter came, asking for a passport photo for their ID. After several more weeks, they picked up their Belgian ID card — without any ceremony, recognition, or congratulations.
No one welcomed them, no one acknowledged the challenging steps they had taken or the emotional journey Anyuta and the people who supported them had been through. It seemed as if all those things were rendered invisible. As anthropology shows, rites of passage are created by humans to mark key life transitions like birth, marriage, or death. Acquiring a new nationality is one of the most significant steps an adult can take, whether born out of desire or careful deliberation. Yet the absence of a ceremony leaves you in a liminal phase — you are here, but no one has welcomed you. It’s like a marriage where only one partner says “yes.”
As an artist, Anyuta sees it as their mission to create a new ritual: a ceremony to welcome new Belgians, which in 2022 alone amounted to 47,000 people. A welcoming ceremony would offer the perfect opportunity to acknowledge that despite our differences, we all share something vital: our future.
Anyuta's research revealed that such ceremonies exist in almost every part of the world: the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Russia, Switzerland, and even in neighboring countries—the Netherlands, France, and Germany. In many other countries, these moments are solely focused on the new citizens. But Anyuta wants to involve the ‘Old Belgians’ in the process and allow this ceremony to dissolve the distinction between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Belgians, between ‘us’ and ‘them’. From the moment of the ceremony onward, they envision everyone together as a collective.
Residencies:
KAAP, Brugge (2023), BUDA, Kortrijk (2023), workspacebrussels, Brussels (2024), De Grote Post, Ostend (2024), BAMP, Brussels (2024), CAMPO, Ghent (2025), Piri Piri, Ryad (MA, 2025), RADAR, Mechelen (2025)
Presentations:
Avant-premiere: Ostend, 2025 (KAAP & De Grote Post), season 2025-26: Brussels, Kortrijk, Mechelen, Ghent, …
Belgium Becoming:
A Threshold of Belonging
ceremony / ritual
HISTORY
Sustainable community living: marriage extented to a legal entity
Anyuta and Kim are married. Their wedding took place in Ghent on August 3, 2018 at 11 am in the presence of our parents, family and close friends. At 7 pm that same day, their wedding party started at the Theater aan Zee festival in Ostend. With family and friends, but also with a theater audience, who could attend the wedding party by buying a ticket.
We got married in order to obtain a residence permit for Anyuta (means), but with the clear intention of establishing a sustainable community (goal). According to the law, the latter is the most important requirement for a legitimate marriage. The documentation and experience of our marriage form the basis of an artistic oeuvre of installations, texts, performances, a theater performance and videos and objects. We hosted our wedding party at TAZ, a visual reflection on our police file was shown in the Red Star Line Museum, we created a theater performance 'A Number of Contradictions, Ignorances and Oddities' (co-production workspacebrussels and De Brakke Grond, residences CAMPO , Vooruit, Gouvernement, De Grote Post, with the support of the Flemish Government), ...
Our ambitions extend beyond various works about the sustainable community between the two of us. We would like to arrive at a new form of sustainability. We feel that we want to grow further as a couple and as individual artists. We each develop our own practice that, as a common denominator, maintains the idea of sustainable living community, a practice where we can also invite other creators so that they also become part of our sustainable life community.
Flanders is famous for the model of artist-run organizations as a method of self-organization of individual artists. The phenomenon is mainly known within the audiovisual sector and in the performing arts. As artists with a hybrid practice, we draw inspiration from existing initiatives and we want to further professionalize ourselves in the field of visual arts, film and audiovisual arts, stage following their example.