Koyaanisqatsi - The Performance

Unique instructions for saving the world

In 1982 Godfrey Reggio let his film Koyaanisqatsi loose on humanity; an apocalyptic vision of a world going mad set to stirring music by Philip Glass. Thirty years later the world is in an even worse state, Koyaanisqatsi has drowned in the visual indigestion of the mass media and Ricky Seabra is struggling to stage this eco-classic work. Will it be a re-enactment or a reinterpretation of the film’s message that we are living too fast and are ‘out of balance’?

• The Brazilian-American artist Ricky Seabra creates a sort of live cinema on stage. He does not use special effects, but, on the contrary, tries to preserve the ‘visual integrity’ of the images and gives them a new context in a mixture of live animation, music and narration. Seabra always tries to offer solutions in his work, so expect to receive unique instructions for saving the world. Seabra presented two memorable solos in Spoken World 08. For Koyaanisqatsi - The Performance he will once again be working with the Brussels theatre maker Dirk Verstockt.

From 10th until 20th May 2012 Koyaanisqatsi is on tour in Brazil: Ricky Seabra is taking his performance to theatres in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Koyaanisquatsi - The Performance, a Kaaitheater co-production, premiered at the Kaaistudio's in October 2010.

Koyaanisqatsi (Life out of Balance) is around 30 years old. The ecological alarm bell has been ringing constantly since the end of the 1970s. Yet today we are in the midst of a profound ecological crisis. Can we still believe in man as the guardian of the planet? Which view of mankind do we need to take as our starting point in order to still be able to foster hope? It is from this perspective that Koyaanisqatsi - The Performance is examined.

> Peter Tom Jones, research manager (IOF) at the K.U.Leuven and co-author of works including Terra Incognita (Ginkgo, Ghent, 2006), Het Klimaatboek (Berchem, 2007), Klimaatcrisis (Antwerp, 2009) and Terra Reversa (Berchem/Utrecht)
> Ricky Seabra & Dirk Verstockt, creators of Koyaanisqatsi - The Performance
> Guy Gypens, artistic director of the Kaaitheater, will be in the chair.

Koyaanisqatsi (Life out of Balance) was an aestheticisation and visualisation of the alienation between man and planet. Several years ago, Peter Tom Jones wrote the book Terra Incognita in which he demonstrated this alienation with an incredible number of facts and figures. What point are we at today? What are the most dangerous ‘imbalances’ that we have created? It is from this perspective that Koyaanisqatsi - The Performance is examined.