New Exhibition at the Luxembourg Pavilion: FILS CROISÉS – KŌSASURU ITO by Aïda Schweitzer: between textile, ritual and performance
Nurtured by several months of research and an immersive residency at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan, just prior to the exhibition, this participatory textile installation becomes a poetic space of passage between Luxembourg and Japan — a continuous weaving of threads, gestures, and memories.
The work goes beyond mere contemplation: it engages visitors as co-creators, inviting them to contribute — on-site or remotely — their own thread to a constantly evolving fabric. This participatory gesture brings to life a textile installation in continuous transformation. The project invokes the figure of the fish, an ancestral motif in Japanese culture, symbolizing metamorphosis, resilience, and the passage between worlds.
Be Self / Be Fish: an invitation to participate
A key theme of the project is BeSelf / BeFish. It invites visitors to symbolically slip into the skin of the fish by posing -either alone or alongside the artist- in an immersive space, somewhere between self-portrait and collective performance. Participants are warmly encouraged to share their selfies, which will be featured on social media by the artist and the Luxembourg Pavilion — with the aim of inspiring others to join the experience, engaging a wider audience, and creating continuity between physical and digital presence.
A highlight of this artistic week, the exhibition opening took place on August 8 and was marked by a wandering performance titled Le Sacre du Poisson, by artist Aïda Schweitzer.
Masked, enigmatic, and fluid, the artist moved freely around the Luxembourg Pavilion, drawing the attention of the audience.
Aïda Schweitzer describes this intervention as follows:
“A fish escapes from the aquarium where it has always lived to explore the terrestrial world. Masked, disoriented, and curious, the creature wanders around the Luxembourg Pavilion in a series of improvised interventions, between rituals and floating gestures, and silent appearances. Blending humor and mystery, the performance questions — with scales — our perception of the stranger, the misfit, the sacred… and the unusual. A living, strange presence, punctuated by offbeat phrases and decidedly useless acts.”
Uniting two popular traditions
The performance challenges cultural norms through a series of simple, almost childlike actions, where the body becomes language. At the heart of this journey lies a gesture: a reimagined duck fishing game, a hybrid between Luxembourg’s Duck Race and the Japanese goldfish scooping tradition (kingyo-sukui), revealing the porous boundaries of popular traditions. Through this hybrid act, the artist creates a gentle and quirky ritual, both homage and provocation.
Le Sacre du Poisson is part of an artistic practice based on encounters between cultures, bodies, and audiences. Between drifting, interaction, and displacement, Aïda Schweitzer offers a sensitive exploration of our differences — inviting us to slow down, observe, and be present.
Between encounter, drift, and displacement, FILS CROISÉS – KŌSASURU ITO explores how threads — whether material or symbolic — connect cultures, bodies, and narratives. The installation weaves a space where gestures and traditions engage in dialogue along a poetic journey between Luxembourg and Japan.
The exhibition FILS CROISÉS – KŌSASURU ITO is presented with the support of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg
