The unimaginable seen.
The Cape of 1,000 Lives
“Send me a piece of cloth someone in your family wore. Tell me what they taught you.”
A thousand people send a piece of cloth that one of their ancestors wore, with a story from that person. I sew every piece into one cape.
The work moves in three phases. First the sewing, in public, in a storefront studio with a live stream. Then a spiral installation in an empty hall, a museum or a former factory. Then a performance in which I wear the cape as a stand-in for lineage.
People who give cloth give it for free. A thousand patrons support the work by buying numbered digital pieces, from €1 to €1,000. Each patron receives a framed fragment of the cloth and its teaching and, if both sides agree, can be connected to the person who gave it.
The quiet message under all of it: you are not forgotten. You belong to a long web of lives, and they are on your side.
- Form
- Public sewing, a spiral installation, and a performance wearing the cape.
- You bring
- A piece of cloth worn by an ancestor, and a story from them.
- I do
- Sew, collect the stories and, later, wear the cape.
- Setting
- A storefront studio with a live stream. An empty hall, museum or former factory.