When madness becomes reality
Where is the line between fact and fiction? What role does imagination play in the stories we tell ourselves? With Confabulations, Diederik Peeters turns the definition of what we consider normal upside down. Like an amateur psychiatrist, he delves into the archives of our mental health in search of a new future image. One in which neurodiversity is embraced and mental vulnerability is not a taboo.
The term “Konfabulationen” was coined in 1901 by German neuropsychiatrist Carl Wernicke to describe a phenomenon he observed in patients with severe amnesia: they unconsciously filled gaps in their memory with fabricated stories, which they believed to be real. Throughout the 20th century, neuroscientists recognised this mechanism in a wider range of patients, gradually leading to a consensus that we all “confabulate”, tell stories that are not true or only partially true but that we believe to be real. This constructed reality helps us make sense of our experience, the world around us and our behaviour.
Diederik Peeters is a visual artist who got lost in the performing arts. Besides many collaborations with fellow artists, Peeters also made a number of creations of his own, including Chuck Norris doesn't sleep, he waits (2007), Red Herring (2011) and Apparitions (2019). Peeters' work constantly questions the notion of a solid and objective reality. He piles up absurdities and contradictions that reveal a universe in which everything is constantly transforming and nothing ever becomes what it seems to be. Together with Kate McIntosh and Hans Bryssinck, he is a founding member of SPIN, a support and reflection platform in Brussels.
