BREAKFIX

In the spring of 2025, during her embedded residency with KAOS, Nada will work on her long-term project, BREAKFIX. She will, among other things, reflect on how breakage and repair are always intertwined and happening simultaneously. What is considered broken is quite a subjective question. Equally, the manner in which things heal is a personal journey. For some, the dysfunctional may offer a sense of—or space for—freedom that is a form of repair in itself. Do we function best when things are going smoothly, or is it, in fact, when things falter, stutter, and fumble that we feel most alive?

The moment things fall apart can be a moment of great potential. The moment something breaks is also always the moment something else is generated—a new beginning. What happens if we look to hacking as a tool of repair? Nada will spend time with the residents of PSC Elsene, getting to know the place and the people. Her initial desire is to write song lyrics, but it is unlikely she will follow her predetermined path. Instead, she wishes to use the energy of her experience and the encounters made along the way as a decisive driving force that moves the project forward.

Inspiration for this project comes from Nada’s previous research into restorative justice and gentle trespassing methods, Wabi-Sabi (the Japanese philosophy that celebrates aging processes with the motto “nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect”), and Jeremy Hutchison’s work Err.