IN VOID
There is a place around the corner, where your dead friends live.
from Dead Friends, Blixa Bargeld
Kris Verdonck has created a series of installations that explores the idea of human absence. All that remains are machines, objects, projections, sound and light. In the Kaaistudios these machines play the leading role – you, the spectator, are given a supporting role. The objects turn the theatre building into their habitat, where they operate autonomously.
Following the IN VOID circuit you will come across existing installations supplemented with new work. The combination of archaic stage techniques with state of the art multimedia techniques breathes new life into these ‘virtual presences’. The result is like a haunted house empty of people where the objects themselves come fully to life. Certain works refer explicitly to the pollution of our planet, war and hypercapitalism. Others explore the redundancy of human beings.
At the cash desk you don’t buy a ticket, but a code that allows you to unbolt the door of the theater building. You wander around freely in an obscure world full of surprising machines, objects and images: a combustion engine that goes all the way until it spurts flames, a bath of light of 400.000 lumen and floating, composing sousaphones.
IN VOID is an intriguing experiment: is it possible to create a performance without people? What might the consequences be – for the theatre itself and for the audience? And in the final analysis, is a world without people actually possible?
Concept & direction Kris Verdonck | Dramaturgy Kristof Van Baarle, Marianne Van Kerkhoven | Technical coordination Jan Van Gijsel, Colin Legras | Technical design An Breugelmans, Eefje Wijnings, Hans Van Wambeke | Technique Steven Blum, Sylvain Spinoit, Raphaël Rubbens, Marc Depauw | Construction Vincent Malstaf, Herman Vendrickx, Marc Depauw, Sylvain Spinoit, Atelier 26, Steven Blum, Damien Gernay | Sound Elise Boënnec Musician | Tuba Stijn Aertgeerts | Camera and editing Vincent Pinckaers | Image processing Massimiliano Simbula Instruments Decap Software & Electronics Felix Luque | Production manager Hendrik De Smedt | Sound design Thomas Turine | Light design Jan van Gijsel, Luc Schaltin, Kris Verdonck | Production A Two Dogs Company, Margarita production voor stilllab vzw | Coproduction Kaaitheater (BE), Festival de Keuze (NL), Theater der Welt 2010 (DE), Transdigital (Interreg), Kunstencentrum Vooruit (BE), Productiehuis Rotterdam / Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL), KunstenFestivaldesArts (BE), Buda Kunstencentrum (BE), Le Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg (LU), NXTSTP (with the support of the European Community), Le manège.mons/CECN (BE), Transdigital/TechnocITé (BE), MAC Créteil (FR), Le Manège - Maubeuge (FR), Lille3000 (FR), Festival La Bâtie (CH) | In collaboration with Schauspiel Essen (DE), Le manège.mons (BE), Technocité (BE) in the frame of Transdigital | Dancer #3 initiated by la chartreuse (FR) in the frame of its research on robots and theatre | Scientific research Jean-Jacques Cassiman, Dirk De Ridder, Philippe Fraisse, Jean Paul Van Bendegem, Dirk Van Hulle | Thanks to Atelier 26, Acapella digital voice, Arne Vanneste, LIRMM (FR), Luc Steels, I-Movix | With the support of the Flemish Authorities, the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), the Brussels Capital Region
