An installation and performance inspired by obsessive romantic love: Um bolo amargo.

As part of my artist residency in Salvador Brazil at the Goethe Institute, I presented a surreal wedding reception and played the role of a Bride to be.
The visitors were invited to step into the role of wedding guests, and were encouraged to offer advice to the Bride on matters of love, freedom, boundaries, and obsession.
This interactive installation featured a series of questionnaires that prompted the public to consider and articulate their own definitions of love.
The central question—”What is love?”—became the foundation of the piece. The responses provided by the audience were collected and integrated into the installation itself, thus becoming a tangible part of the artwork.

The performance unfolded amidst this collective wisdom.
The Bride, navigating a complex emotional landscape, interacts with these handwritten words, transforming the static installation into a dynamic, living conversation about the joys and anxieties of relationships.
Um Bolo Amargo is a collaborative exploration, a bittersweet ceremony where the audience’s intimate reflections became a collective gift to the Bride, creating a poignant and ever-evolving portrait of human connection.

The meeting with the Bride was ongoing, transforming the wedding table into an emotional landscape.

23-08-2025 MAC ( Museum Contemporary Arts) Salvador, Brazil
26-08-2025 Goethe Institute Salvador, Brazil

credits: Isabelle do Vale, Marcus Chagas and Rosana Viana
A big thank you to CALQ and Goethe Institute, as well as to the MAC, Salvador

“Échos Rhapsodiques” est une exploration personnelle et immersive du concept de la rhapsodie. Cette création est comme un voyage à travers des expressions effusives de sentiment, des fragments épiques et des improvisations évocatrices, le tout inspiré par l’idée d’une composition libre et émotionnelle.

Cette performance est un mouvement étendu, à l’image des rhapsodies musicales et ne suivre pas une forme régulière ; au contraire, on privilége une structure fluide et suggestive d’improvisation, laissant l’émotion dicter le rythme et la direction. Des textes poétiques récités — rappelant les rhapsodes de la Grèce antique — s’entrelaceront avec mes compositions sonores originales et mes mouvements corporels expressifs.

L’ objectif est de créer un espace où les “rhapsodies de louanges” et les “expressions extravagantes de sentiment” peuvent prendre forme, se transformant en une expérience sensorielle partagée. Chaque élément, qu’il soit sonore, visuel ou textuel, contribue à l’éclat et à la passion que l’on retrouve dans une rhapsodie musicale. “Échos Rhapsodiques” est la célébration de l’expression libre, de l’émotion et de la beauté de l’imprévu.

La Chaufferie Action Ouverte
credit Eddie Soto

We live in an era where growing old is considered something to be avoided. But yet, if we want to keep on living, aging is unavoidable.

Which memories and stories are collected inside us and inside our societies?
What are the narratives that inform our lives, our fears, our hopes in general?
What stories and histories are passed on to us by the elderly?
Becoming is a non-linear drop-in performance inspired by 65 objects, each object representing a year of her life, collected and owned by Jacqueline van de Geer.
This performance was a six hour gathering at the PHI Montreal.

The participants were welcomed at the round table in PHI’s exhibition space and were invited to exchange stories around aging, to share personal and collective memories and explore observations on the changes we have lived so far.
As a starting point, Jacqueline let one participant draw a card which represented a year, from that year she collected an object, corresponding with either a personal or collective memory.
Thus merged this performance into an intimate meeting in which she shared her own memories with objects, pictures, records and in which the public was an active part of the performance!

This event was part of Becoming Sparkling, a project from Jacqueline van de Geer that shines a light on seniority, with the wish to blend generations together in a celebration of life. The exhibition was showed at Phi during a month summer 2024.

Credit:Daniel Fiset

A mirror is a smooth or polished surface (as of glass) that forms images by reflection as well it is something that gives a true likeness or description.
But what is a true likeness?
Mirrors allow us to see ourselves. They show us what we look like, they let us examine ourselves, and they can give us a glimpse of our ancestry and heritage. Sometimes a mirror will show you a part of you that you did not notice before, and there is beauty in that.
The mirror image is an objectified representation of ourselves and allow seeing us as through the gaze of an another. And what if a city is mirrored as part of our appearance?

‘Mirroring this city’ happened in Mannheim as part of Zeitraums and PAS performance studies.
I the city a woman strolls through the streets, dressed in an outfit made of garbage bags.
She places a mirror square in front of her face, thus making her head a reflection of what happens during her walk.
The streets are shown in different angles and sometimes an improvised meeting is invited.

coached by PAS
credits: Monika Deiming

You are my disco! is an interactive performance that invites the audience to dance together in a festive and spontaneous way in an unusual context.
Behind her turntable, Jacqueline van de Geer takes control of the evening and transports the participants back in time, alternating disco hits and slow music on 45 and 33 rpm. The audience is carried away by the music and the voice of the artist, who recomposes the story of her youth in the background of the performance. Jacqueline van de Geer offers the chance to reconnect with a previous era, as well as with other people in the space, in a celebration of life!

You are my disco! est une performance interactive qui, dans un contexte inhabituel, invite le public à danser ensemble, de manière festive et spontanée.
Derrière sa table tournante, Jacqueline van de Geer prend le contrôle de la soirée et transporte les participant·e·s dans le temps, en alternant hits disco et musique slow en 45 et 33 tours. Les spectacteur·trice·s se laissent porter par la musique et la voix de l’artiste qui recompose, en toile de fond de la performance, le récit de sa jeunesse. Jacqueline van de Geer offre ainsi la chance de se reconnecter à une époque antérieure, de même qu’aux autres personnes dans l’espace, dans une célébration de la vie !

Art Souterrain 2023 editon, pictures: Mike Patten

Gathering is a two-hour encounter, in which strangers connect with each other during a board game. The board game stations invite teams to learn about a variety of believe systems watching video clips, listening to music, reading clips to each other and sharing intimate stories as well as making a collage together.
This gathering is inspired by a residency at La cité des Hospitalières, a former Catholic hospital run by nuns.
What is the value of healing, caring, and sharing? What do we believe? And how do we come together, get strangers to connect with each other?
Credit Anna Doumet and Ecotone.

Gathering est une rencontre de deux heures, au cours de laquelle des inconnus se connectent lors d’un jeu de société. Les stations de jeux de société invitent les équipes à découvrir une variété de systèmes de croyance en regardant des clips vidéo, en écoutant de la musique, en se lisant des clips et en partageant des histoires intimes ainsi qu’en faisant un collage ensemble.
Ce rassemblement s’inspire d’une résidence à La cité des Hospitalières, un ancien hôpital catholique tenu par des religieuses.
Quelle est la valeur de la guérison, de la bienveillance et du partage? Que croyons-nous? Et comment pouvons-nous nous réunir, amener des étrangers à se connecter les uns aux autres ?
Crédit Anna Doumet et Ecotone.

What is love? (baby, don’t hurt me) is inspired by the themes femicide, microaggressions in the public space and tabu’s about romantic love.
The term femicide was first used in England in 1801 to signify “the killing of a woman. Another term used is feminicide, which is properly formed from the Latin femina, meaning “female”.
The current usage of this word emerged with the 1970s feminist movements, which aimed to raise feminine consciousness and resistance against gender oppression. Diana Russell used the term at the Crimes Against Women Tribunal in 1976 while “testifying at the first International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Belgium”.
Here is part of what she wrote for the proceedings:
‘We must realize that a lot of homicide is in fact femicide.
We must recognize the sexual politics of murder.
From the burning of witches in the past, to the more recent widespread custom of female infanticide in many societies, to the killing of women for “honor,” we realize that femicide has been going on a long time.’
And sadly, femicide is still going on, the newspapers were filled with articles about women, who were murdered by their husbands and ex lovers.

Premiere august 2022 Meetfactory, Prague.
Credit: Maria Karlakova

What happens…
A record player and two records:
The “Mauthausen Trilogy” which is a cycle of four arias with lyrics based on poems written by Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis, a Mauthausen concentration camp survivor, and music written by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It has been described as the “most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust”.
The second record is Joan’s Karasevich Reflections, a selection of Ukrainian favorites with texts from the poet Taras Shevchenko.
I change records, after the last song, a scratching rythmical sound like a distorted heartbeat fills the room.
All the participants get a small paper filled with poetry by Shevchenko.
With a thin yellow string I write the the first words of this poem on the floor, I am inviting the participants to murmur the text I handed out, in this sea of voices and murmuring, I pack all my things and put them in a blue basket, the string is slowly unfolding the words as I leave the scene with the yellow string attached to the basket, the murmuring and whispering of the poetry by Shevchenko is following me as if they are echo’s of an abandoned world.

The String edition 2 was part of the RIPA festival 2022 in Montreal, where I as well had the pleasure to be the mentor of the young emerging artists.

credit: Davis Hepnar

In our contemporary world time is rushing us, we just go on and on and on in a crazy and hectic tempo.
While glaring at screens with our devices, we fill our head-space with an overload of information about literally everything that is happening around us.
It is not easy to find a quiet time to reflect on how we actually feel today, now, in this moment.

‘Today I write myself a letter’ offers the participants the time and space to write themselves an old fashioned letter.

This event gives the participants a moment of reflection: what would they like to write to themselves, what kind of letter they love to receive.

The ‘outcome’ is private and will never be revealed; only the person that writes and receives the letter will know what is shared and written.

Dans notre monde contemporain où le temps nous presse, nous ne faisons que continuer à ce rythme infernal. Les yeux rivés sur les écrans de nos appareils, nous remplissons nos têtes d’une surcharge d’informations à propos de littéralement tout ce qui se passe autour de nous.
Ce n’est pas facile de trouver un temps de calme pour réfléchir sur comment nous nous sentons réellement aujourd’hui, maintenant, dans le moment présent.

‘Today I write myself a letter’ offre au public le temps et l’espace de s’écrire, à l’ancienne, une lettre.

Cet événement donne au public un moment de réflexion : qu’est-ce qu’iels aimeraient s’écrire, quel genre de lettre aimeraient-iels recevoir ?

Le “résultat” est privé et ne sera jamais révélé; seule la personne qui écrit et reçoit la lettre saura ce qui est partagé et écrit.

This interactive performance was part of Cabaret Tolle, december 2021 in Studio 303, Montreal.
Credits Kimura Byol

In these days of confinement, isolation and lock down, we need the presence of each other.
We crave the presence of sound, the outside world and we are longing for communication.
In this performance, we are invited to cherish our skills and use our creativity in order to compose our very own Confinement Rhapsody.
This interactive performance started during the first months of the Pandemic as a Zoom concert.
I operated online from my living room using an antiquarian sampling and remixing technique sourced by movement, radio, old records and cassettes, as well as bells, chimes, paper, maracas… where up to 9 participants selected at random helped to compose a Confinement Rhapsody!
Presented in 2020 online at PerformIstanbul, Turkey and Studio 303, Montreal and live as part of No Hay Banda at the Salla Rosa in Montreal in 2021.

Credits: Elaine Louw Graham.

Hysteria was considered a disease only occurring in
women.
Oh, did we hear stories about hysterical women during
centuries.
One of the methods to cure Hysteria was that the womb
was supposed to be filled with babies constantly, to
prevent it from wandering and causing strong emotional
outcries. Another cure was putting women away, behind
bars and yet another cure was to let the doctor
masturbate them with vibrators, which caused an
enormous increase of hysteria!
In Galerie Helmut I developed a playful way to decode the stigma of
‘hysteria’ and invited the visitors to participate in a discussion in togetherness.
All visitors were welcome to add drawings of ideal wombs, to discuss the stigma’s of female hysteria in an interactive board-game and to decorate menstruation pads.

Credit pictures: Fanni Papp, galerie Helmut, Leipzig, Germany

Persona! is a series of self portraits I made during a three months residency at Est Nord Est in Saint Jean Port Joli autumn 2020.
Can one perform through the lens of a camera, making a performance within the 10 seconds the camera allows you to pose, move and transform?
In Persona!, I organized a daily photo shoot, exploring my past, portraying me as a child, as a punky teenager, as a young adult, transforming myself in my housewife-mother, my paternal strong grandmother, old friends I remembered and with great joy, I allowed myself to plunge into female archetypes and I was especially experimenting with the concept of female nudes, making and directing my own nude pictures.