Rokia Traoré is an icon of African music. She narrates the epic of King Soundiata Keita, the King who based his power on respect and not on greed or violence, and the unifier of the great 13th-century Mandé Empire. Traoré blends classic songs by the Mandé griots into her narrative. These poets and singers were responsible for a unique form of oral history.

Meyoucycle sounds like ‘musical’ pronounced in a strange accent. Along with composer Chris Peck and four Ictus musicians, Bauer blends together all the ingredients for a musical, producing a completely new, hybrid genre. The piece is about you and me and everything in between. That’s right, a me-you cycle.

What would hell look like today? The 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch, made Vasco Mendonça, Kris Verdonck and Dimitri Verhulst think. They quickly arrived at the beaches of Lampedusa: a place where while tourists were sunbathing refugees were washed up on the beach. The false paradise of the resorts and the Boschian hell on earth seamlessly flow into each other.

Meyoucycle is about you and me and everything in between. Indeed, a me-you-cycle. Bauer presents a science fiction concert about completely normal emotions in this age of hyper-capitalism and technological progress.

The Brussels Brecht-Eisler Chorus is working with six other choruses and director Ruud Gielens on a major project on peace. FleeTheFrenzy! tells the story of those victims who even in current wars are often left out of the picture: deserters and conscientious objectors. The performance ends at the Kaaitheater, and is staged in the surrounding streets, whose names all refer to WWI.

Following radical adaptations that include La Divina Commedia and The Old Testament, FC Bergman now turns to another literary classic, the epic animal poem Van den vos Reynaerde (Reynard the Fox). Liesa Van der Aa and Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop put this journey/quest to music. Josse De Pauw provides the words. Dirk Roofthooft, Viviane De Muynck and Gregory Frateur also participate.

Led by the director and artist Ann Van de Vyvere (Firma Irma), a group of
‘observers’ has been studying reality in all its forms. Together, they bring surrealism to reality. How can we be sure of what we know? How do we measure what is normal and what is not? Hocus Focus explores the boundary
between the enthralling reality and real science.

Artists, writers and philosophers present their vision of ‘mobility and identity’, the theme of this Spoken World. An evening of lectures and statements, acts and performances, films and debate. An evening with Paul Scheffer, Tanja Ostojic, Els Dietvorst, Ben Hamidou, Soheila Najand and many others.