Midwif is the Old English form of midwife, combining mid, meaning together with wif, meaning woman. This site connects artists, writers and researchers around the figure of midwif, as a knot at the centre of an entanglement of ideas around women’s medicinal plant knowledge and practices, and histories of their attempts at reproductive autonomy.
The entanglement of ideas are:
Midwif is affiliated to the deep histories fragile memories research constellation at Luca School of Arts Brussels; to the Lieven Gevaert Centre, Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven; to Netwerk Kunsthalle Aalst; to Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC); and to Piet Zwart Institute, Willem De Kooning Academy Rotterdam
The context of this collaborative investigation is the project of artist Wendy Morris, Nothing of Importance Occurred: Recuperating a Herball for a 17th century Enslaved Angolan Midwife at the Cape (2018-2023).