Bread & Roses is cheating

For the virtual expo Bread & Roses is cheating we invited friendly heritage institutions to share special pieces from their own collections that, in their opinion, resonate with the meaning of the legendary slogan behind the magazine's name:We want bread and we want roses too'.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, that powerful slogan has symbolized social justice worldwide. Bread refers to the right to fair wages and economic security. Roses represent everything that makes life more than mere survival: culture, nature, education, beauty, freedom, and equality. Together, they express a desire for a dignified and just existence. An aspiration that is just as relevant today as it was then.

Bread & Roses is cheating brings together a multifaceted selection of objects, images, documents, and stories thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of numerous heritage institutions.

For the project 'Stiel – We are the makersIn 2023, Linx+ set out to meet leisure makers who shape their world with their hands and their minds. No big names. Ordinary people with a strong drive to create. Linx+ wanted to know what that making does to them. Does it make them prouder, stronger, happier? Their stories show that making is more than a pastime. It is a way to take a place in society.

For Bread & Roses is cheating Linx+ selected work by student Bien, who with yarnbombing engages in connective activism.

Bien, yarnbombing and the right to take up space

Bien, a 20-year-old student at the time of the Stiel project, touches very directly on the meaning of with her work. Bread & RosesWith wool and a crochet hook, she brings signs of social struggle into the public space. She makes justice and solidarity visible in the streetscape. At the same time, she shows how making is also about beauty, creation, encounter, and imagination.

When the Black Lives Matter protests flared up in 2020, Bien did not stand idly by.

I try to connect art and activism.

She hooked the name of the movement and attached it to a pole in the city. No pamphlet. No banner. Just a soft, handmade sign that stands out, precisely because it doesn't scream.

What she does is called yarnbombing: as a maker, she intervenes in streets and squares with textiles. Bien crochets symbols from the social struggle and leaves them behind in places where people pass, wait, or gather. For example, she crocheted the red anti-fascist triangle near a spot where the far right came to speak.

Especially within the climate movement and the social struggle, I try to make the world a little better. I do that with crochet, in my own specific way.

For Bien, making is not an individual activity. Designing together, working side by side, talking while hands are busy: it is all part of the experience. She finds peace while crocheting. Connection is formed within a group. During the student occupation of End Fossil in Ghent, she experienced how action and creation coincide.

That space we first occupied and then shaped served as an example of the society we want to see, one with more art in public space.

Bien doesn't create to pursue perfection. She creates to try, to share, and to connect. If a sweater fails and she has to take it all off again, she can laugh about it. The process is what counts.

I cannot imagine a world in which people do not create. What remains of us if we do not create? It is the source of culture.

Take a closer look at the works

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Through its socio-cultural offerings, Linx+ is building a warm network that strengthens society and inspires people to find their place in the social struggle.

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