The hedonistic body

In our hedonistic societies, the body is displayed, contemplated, transformed, and aestheticised. Some religions celebrate the beauty of the body as the work of God. If people today celebrate, eroticise and deify the body, then are we entering a “post-religious” age in the West while elsewhere the body is covered to curb desire? Where does modesty fit in today’s world, with its splintering of values?

SYHEM BELKHODJA

Passionate about dance, Syhem Belkhodja aims to make dance as accessible as possible. She is convinced that art is the best way to counter ignorance and that is why she founded ‘Ness el Fen’, with which she teaches young artists in Tunisia. Together, they create an open platform where they can tell stories through their bodies. She also founded ‘L’Ecole des Arts et du Cinéma’ and the ‘Centre Méditerranéen de Danse Contemporaine,’ the first contemporary dance academy in Africa.

NADIA FADIL

Nadia Fadil works as a professor at the University of Leuven, more specifically for the IMMRS (Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Center). Her work mostly deals with subjectivity, power, post-colonialism and the question around integration in Flanders.

LAURENCE PODSELVER

Laurence Podselver works as Project Manager at the EHESS, where she focuses on contemporary Jewish communities in France. She dedicated 25 years of her research to the conservative Loubavitch movement in Paris and made her findings into a book in 2010, making it the most recent addition to her extensive portfolio. 

Flagey, Le Soir, RTBF, ULB, VUB