Performatik 2017, de recentste editie van de Brusselse biënnale voor performancekunst, bewijst nog maar eens hoeveel verschillende gedaantes het genre aanneemt. Paradoxaal genoeg vormt die veranderlijkheid net de rode draad door alle Performatik-edities en de uitdijende discipline van de performancekunst – van de vele kunstenaars die balanceren op de grens tussen dans, theater en beeldende kunst, tot hun veranderlijke werken en
 de diverse locaties waar ze worden opgevoerd. Wat valt er te vertellen over performance anno 2017?
Etcetera, 15/06/2017

As a possible counter reaction, Han advocates a revaluation of the contemplative. Bring the neoliberal positivity machine to a halt to create time and space! Time and space in which meaning can surpass knowledge, use is prioritized over consumption, impartiality supresses economic expediency, the playful hand is joined to the working hand, an event is more meaningful than the project, in which ‘not doing’ or ‘not knowing’ also have value, and in which the negative can be looked in the face, even unto death. RE:RITE winds through our programme like a chaplet of contemplative practices, new rituals, and spiritual inspiration.

How are we to ‘remake’ society at the dawn of the 21st century? This central question formed the leitmotif throughout the 2016-2017 Kaaitheater programme. An overview of everything we've collected along the season.

In an old gymnasium in Mechelen, theatre director Thomas Bellinck is working on his new production Simple as ABC #2: Keep Calm and Validate. The performance is the second part in a series about the Western migration machine, a theme that has dominated Thomas’ personal interests for quite some time, and which he will examine through various media over the coming years.

The Belgian Maarten Vanden Eynde and the Cameroonian Alioum Moussa are building a two-part mobile structure, of which one side is the other’s opposite. Yet the structures depend upon one another to stay in balance. During Performatik17 they set up shop at Place de la Monnaie, where you are invited to visit them – in pairs – for a discussion about dependence and independence.

Theatre director Philippe Quesne, visual artist Müge Yilmaz and philosopher/writer Maarten Doorman discuss possible meanings of the image of nature in art. Notions such as the romantic, the sublime and the search for authenticity will be questioned along the way.

Why do artists make work outside of the black box or the exhibition space? Which place can art take within the flux of daily life in the city? Choreographer Meg Stuart, scenographer Jozef Wouters, dramaturg Jeroen Peeters, performance artist Ant Hampton, theatre maker Lotte van den Berg, and choreographer Benjamin Vandewalle attempt to give some answers.

Mette Edvardsen talks about oslo ((2017), trilogies and opening spaces.

Especially for Performatik17, Grace Schwindt creates a performance for the theatre stage. She portrays the dilemma of an ornithologist studying the effects of oil pollution on seabirds. The victims he records symbolise the efficiency of capitalism. (in English)

Brussels choreograaf Benjamin Vandewalle en documentairemaker Dieter Deswarte draaiden een maand na de aanslagen van 22/3 een pakkende film in de straten van Molenbeek, met in de hoofdrol dansende kinderen en hun ongefilterde verhalen.

Seven years ago, the publication of Prosperity without Growth was a landmark in the sustainability debate. Tim Jackson’s challenge to conventional economics openly questioned the pursuit of exponential economic growth. Its findings inspired debate and led to a new wave of research building on its arguments and conclusions. n the substantially re-written edition of his book, Jackson demonstrates that building a ‘post-growth’ economy is a precise and meaningful task.