A series of talks organised by the Flemish-Dutch Centre deBuren, intended for higher education students, but everyone is welcome. There will be two series which one can attend in full or in part.

KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS 010 - On stage a stack of torn books, a screen spits out random images. What starts out as a discussion about pizzas can suddenly continue with a history lesson, switches from flamenco to post-punk, from reflections on love to comments on the relation between humiliation and the economy. The director Rodrigo García – last year at our Performatik festival – seems to ask: what are we to do, say what we think, withdraw, or take part? And what if our actions were in vain?

In her previous pieces, Charlotte Vanden Eynde often used objects and video, coming close to the boundary of visual art. In I’m Sorry It’s (Not) A Story she gives shape to her associative visual idiom in pure movement and dance, and seeks out the ‘image’ and poetry of movement.

In the book Are we here yet? Meg Stuart reflects on her own practice in dialogue with Jeroen Peeters and several past and present members of Damaged Goods. It links together significant moments from Stuart’s artistic career by means of reflections on creation, performing, improvisation and dramaturgy. In addition, the book includes illustrations, documents and performance scripts, as well as an actual guide with exercises.

(BIG GIRLS DO BIG THINGS) by the American dancer and choreographer Eleanor Bauer is a dance performance on grandeur and vulnerability, hubris and humility, about living large when less is more but more is also unmistakably more. Bauer invites you on a safari expedition into the depths of the surface-oriented world of the performer. Self-expression drops the self and expression takes over.

Is sexism really spreading in the media? Has political incorrectness become the done thing? Do we have to be ‘incorrect’ to be sharp and funny? Or is there nothing new under the sun?

More and more people agree that when it comes to selection criteria in business, a lot still has to change before women truly have equal opportunities. The call for quotas seems to be getting louder all the time. But are quotas the right approach? And if so, what would a realistic percentage be? And should we introduce quotas for other minorities too?

With Boris Charmatz we shall be discussing the grand master of postmodern dance, Merce Cunningham (1919-2009). In the bar we shall be showing a documentary by his close associate Charles Atlas, and an experimental short film by the American video artist Nam June Paik.

Vincent Dunoyer has danced for Wim Vandekeybus, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Steve Paxton and others. How does all this choreographic material lodge in a dancer’s body? Dance critic Jeroen Peeters will talk to him about the body’s memory.

Christel Stalpaert, a professor at Ghent University, will be talking to Fabian Barba about the work of the German choreographer Mary Wigman (1886-1973), an innovator in expressionism and a pioneer of modern dance.

Timmy De Laet, a researcher at Antwerp University, will be talking to Kattrin Deufert, Thomas Plischke and DD Dorvillier about archiving, sharing and passing on dance material.