Every age has its own wonders of the world. An idea of the impossible that gets built anyway, bigger and more impressive than anything that preceded it. In 7, Radouan Mriziga juxtaposes two benchmarks: the constructed world, built to impress, and the ultimate wonder of the world, the human body itself.
A philanthropist – one who still genuinely believes in progress – builds a ship. However much like a fable it may seem, Pieter De Buysser’s planetarium production was inspired by contemporary socio-political realities. Take a chance on this border exploration for nationalists, homeland research for cosmopolitans, and cosmology of a new worldview.
Brazilian choreographer Marcelo Evelin researches the physically deteriorating body. What might dance mean for tired, fragile and suffering bodies? This dance-as-pathology was inspired by butoh pioneer Hijikata Tatsumi. The dancers move in and out of themselves like a contagious virus: the portent of certain death, but only to reaffirm the power of life.
A sudden and uannounced event can change the colour of whatever went before. unannounced – a performance for six dancers – plays with the way your focus shifts when a sudden apparition suddenly changes your perspective. The creators zoom in on the deep dark shades of the black box to look beyond the surface of the here and now. The anticipation of what is to come echoes the afterglow of the past.
How should we deal with the universal human urge to be part of a greater whole? In a stylized, atomic universe, Frank&Robbert discover the laws of duality, beauty, and magnetism.
How do we envision the art spaces of tomorrow? How can we reshape these meeting places and laboratories for coexistence? The artists of Damaged Goods set up camp in a former factory in Molenbeek – housing the Decoratelier of scenographer Jozef Wouters – to formulate some physical answers to these questions.
The visual artist Fabrice Samyn presents five of his seven Breath Pieces, which take breathing as their starting point. To the rhythm of the breathing, a number of different actions are performed that intensify your awareness of time, while attention is focused on all that is fundamental and uncontrollable about breathing. This show has been cancelled and rescheduled to season 2017-2018.
In this performance/cookery workshop, Feiko Beckers teaches you some cooking techniques using faulty instructions and impractical utensils. You can be sure that the result will be inedible, but in Feiko Beckers’ world, failure is always a joy!
Especially for Performatik17, Grace Schwindt creates a performance for the theatre stage. She draws inspiration from Bernini’s sculptural group Apollo and Daphne. Starting from the dynamic of this frozen scene, she creates a striking overall picture with music, song and acrobatics.
This brand new production directed by Ivo Van Hove is based on Leoš Janácek’s song cycle that goes by the same name. The result of Janácek’s inspired efforts is a mysterious, deeply emotional and psychological piece on identity, alienation, and an impossible love. Annelies Van Parys – one of the most acclaimed Belgian composers of our time – adds a fi tting contemporary reply.
In 2005, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, along with Salva Sanchis, created a quartet set to John Coltrane’s jazz album A Love Supreme. Improvisation and composition interweave until they melt together. Join a new cast of young performers, in giving yourself over to Coltrane’s spiritual ode to divine love!
Dancer and choreographer Fumiyo Ikeda takes you on a journey to the heart of Morton Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet. This 80-minute composition for piano and strings exudes an aura of tranquillity, in which ‘each is just as much an echo of the other’. Ikeda shares the stage with the soloists of Ictus, as though she herself were the sixth musician.
Inspired by the hymn Say No!, more than 30 choirs and ensembles from across the world have created their own song about conscientious objection and desertion. All the contributed images and sounds form the material for a video creation, intertwined with a live performance by a huge international choir.
CAPSAICIN is that feeling you get when you have eaten a hot chilli pepper. But it could also be a place: a new Cape of Good Hope as a place of refuge. Together with Globe Aroma and newcomers to Brussels, Michiel Soete deals with longings that refuse to be thwarted by powerlessness, anger or fear.
Stef Kamil Carlens was inspired by folk art, rituals, beautiful creatures from European folklore traditions, and early twentiethcentury modern art. Enter into this wonderful world of dance, music, word, costumes, and masks!
Syden means ‘South’ in all the Scandinavian languages. It evokes a Southern holiday destination: warm, cheap and with every amenity. The musician and composer Niko Hafkenscheid, the visual artist Hedvig Biong and the film-maker Pablo Castilla explore the mystery, authenticity and perversity of this parallel universe.
Mount Tackle is a movement in three parts for young and old: a 60 minute trajectory, some dance, and an open end. You can leave after one hour or stay. Relax, take the time and distance you need. Maybe walk around, scan and discover or just hang out.
During an improvised encounter, Meg Stuart and Tim Etchells negotiate, renegotiate and explore the themes and methodologies that characterize each other’s work: from presence and absence, need and loss, to fragmentary storylines.
“God damn it, we’re going to make something up. We’re going to make up some fantastic things and try them out, because history has only just begun.” After Otaku, In Onaanvaardbare Staat and Attack of the Killer Z, Joost Vandecasteele returns to the Kaaistudios with a solo project: a mix of theatre and stand-up comedy.
Ne Swarte is a new text by Jan Decorte, based on Shakespeare’s Othello. In this radical, poetic rewriting, Jan Decorte debones the classic text. Beneath the simple narrative lies a profound truth that directly touches on the mystery of life.
Every second, an hour of video material is uploaded onto YouTube. We dish out ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ and enjoy nothing more than offering detailed commentary. Guided by a selection of these comments, Tristero touches upon fundamental themes, such as the fragility of art and of freedom of speech. This leads to a drily humorous, sometimes disconcerting portrait of the globally linked YouTube community.
