Out now: Mothering Myths - An ABC of Art, Birth and Care'

In close collaboration with Centraal Museum and Valiz, Nest presents the book Mothering Myths - An ABC of Art, Birth and Care. A radical, transhistorical and intersectional view on (m)otherhood in/and the arts, through concepts such as 'kinship', 'revolutionary parenting' and ‘womb consciousness’. Through the form of an abecedarium, a versatile and accesible read, accomodating the scattered attention span of the mother, beautifully designed by Bart de Baets.

Motherhood is a theme that stands at the core of life, but has nevertheless been kept in the private sphere for a long time, haunted by clichés, stigmas and myths. Motherhood has always been seen as trivial, not as a subject for real art. At the same time, artists with a womb have faced the cliché that they had to decide between making art or having a child, as both would take up all the mother’s time and energy.

Mothering Myths unravels these clichés, stigmas and myths, through the lens of art, and a transhistorical and intersectional perspective, while being very playful and open to many interpretations. It breaks through the perspective of the individual mother figure and makes space for collectivity, different forms of ‘mothering’ and political questions surrounding self-determination. Mothering Myths presents the emancipatory nature of the artist-mother, the voluntarily childless woman, the non-female mother and the ‘raven mother’, through concepts such as kinship, revolutionary parenting, womb consciousness and reproductive justice.