For Parade, Vincen Beeckman (BE) explored the significance and potential of carnival in collaboration with a variety of communities across Breda. Carnival proves to be more than a party, operating as a social ritual in which questions around identity, differences and solidarity are at heart. Participants from diverse cultural backgrounds shared their stories, dreams and experiences, reflecting on resilience and self-expression. The question “who would you like to be?” formed a common thread for this project. And, responding with this, transformation recurred not as a one-off event, but as a gradual and continuous process in which people experience ongoing transformation.

A parade is more than a procession. It’s a cascade of idiosyncratic human expression, individual and collective, at once. Within this river of people, mutual differences are foregrounded, while everyone is absorbed in the shared rhythms of the parade. The collective movement creates a temporal feeling of connection or togetherness. This collectivity is not only palpable during carnival in Breda, but also across other carnival cultures.

This drew Beeckman to look at different practices (within as well as beyond carnival) in which new encounters and forming bonds is central. He travelled to Curaçao for the Caribbean carnival, where he participated in the horse parade and the tumba. In the Indonesian care home, Raffy, one of the project’s partners, togetherness is embedded in everyday practices. During kumpulans and pasars, people gather around food, music and memories.

Whether we turn to the exuberance of the Caribbean carnival, the intimacy of Indonesian gatherings or local traditions such as the klûntocht in Breda: the encounter is always central. People come together, share stories, take on different roles or show something of themselves. This is how the Parade comes into being: a procession of people that celebrates how different we are, as well as what connects us.