The Parliament of the Pitiful 

Artistic researcher Laura Vandewynckel works at the intersection of film, theatre and visual arts. The Parliament of the Pitiful is the final outcome of her doctoral research at RITCS School of Arts and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In the exhibition, she brings together mechanical puppets, robots and kinetic sculptures. Her work draws on stories of scapegoating, both old and contemporary, but reverses the perspective. It is not the majority that speaks, but those who are usually denied a voice: the scapegoat, the animal, space debris or another excluded being.

About 'The Parliament of the Pitiful'

The Parliament of the Pitiful is the culmination of Laura Vandewynckel’s doctoral research Moved by the Object. Over six years, she explored how mechanical puppets, robots and kinetic sculptures can move us, bring us together and spark debate and action.

Drawing on ancient and contemporary scapegoat myths, Vandewynckel gives a voice to those who are usually cast out: human and non-human beings at the margins. In her automata, these scapegoats come back to life — as tragic, playable figures that confront us with responsibility and offer a new perspective on the myths.

The exhibition brings together her collection of automata and animates them through short films. A poetic parliament for those who were never given a seat at the table.

About the curator

Laura Vandewynckel studied Language and Literature at Ghent University and dramatic and audiovisual arts at RITCS School of Arts Brussels. Her stop-motion film Paradise (2014), a lighthearted yet critical reflection on "ethical" tourism, was selected for La Cinef Cannes and TIFF. Thanks to the Sifnos Award La Cinef, she created the short film Pharmakos(2017) on the Greek island of Sifnos. The film documents a collective reenactment of the Greek Pharmakos ritual with the island’s inhabitants.

Her animated short film Le Crépuscule (2023) explores the effect of nightmare news on the collective mind and is currently touring international film festivals.

She has written and directed several theatrical plays, including A modest contribution (2018), about good intentions with bad consequences, as well as the participatory performance Stick Together (2021), inspired by stick games, dances, and fights from around the world and Lost in LEO (2023), a puppet performance about impact and climate change from the perspective of space debris.

She recently completed a PhD at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and RITCS on the potential of automata as activist and therapeutic tools. In a series of installations, she reenacts both archaic and contemporary scapegoat myths from the perspective of the scapegoat, performed in public spaces as an automaton. The feature documentary “Let the sea take away all evil” is the artistic cornerstone of that research.

She teaches Concept & Scenario and Transversal Atelier at RITCS.