BLACK + I-on

PERFORMATIK 2011 OPENING NIGHT
DOUBLE BILL

Mette Edvardsen [BE]
BLACK

BLACK, by the Norwegian-Brussels performer and choreographer Mette Edvardsen, is a performance about making things appear. The space is empty. There are no things. Through spoken words and movements in space a world will become visible, where the performer is the mediator between the audience and what is there. It is a play in time and space where only the body is physically present, performing actions and handling invisible objects, constantly trying to bridge the invincible gap between thought and experience, between here and there. This is a typical Edvardsen performance: subtle, intelligent and honest.

Ivo Dimchev & Franz West [BG/BE & AT]
I-on

Early in the seventies the Austrian artist Franz West created the first portable sculptures which he named Paßstücke (‘adaptives’ or accessories). West wraps everyday objects in gauze and plaster, the main idea being that the audience will pick them up and walk around with them. West’s objects act as prostheses. With his tongue in his cheek he upsets our often distant relationship with works of art.

This summer, West asked the Bulgarian performer Ivo Dimchev to make two videos with his Paßstücke. Dimchev in turn asked him if he could create a performance with the sculptures. The solo I-on has already been presented in the Gagosian Gallery in Rome and the Hayward Gallery in London and will now be performed in a theatre for the first time. Dimchev is working on a group performance, X-Ion, which will be staged in the Kaaitheater next season.

• The Bulgarian artist Ivo Dimchev has lived and worked in Brussels since 2009. His work is distinguished by an inimitable, weird fantasy and an impressive body language and vocalisation. He is the director, choreographer, writer, singer and performer of all his work. For such performances as Lili Handel and Paris he has been awarded several international prizes, and his solo Som Faves was selected for the most last Theatre Festival. We are very happy that he will now be appearing at the Kaaitheater, and opening and closing the Performatik festival.