Blue Skies Forever
In 2016, Beyoncé unleashed her music video Hold Up on the world. It was remarkably similar to the 1997 video work Ever is Over All by Pipilotti Rist. Fascinated by the divergent depictions of women in the videos, buren decided to focus on the two figures in Ever is Over All: Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz, and a police officer called Officer. In a dreamlike, associative performance, these figures are depicted, reinterpreted, dissociated and then reconnected. The young makers at buren playfully subvert the clichés that continue to dominate representations of women.
• The work of buren – the collective led by Oshin Albrecht and Melissa Mabesoone – is located at the intersection of performance, theatre and visual art. With irony, humour and future-oriented imagination, they play with themes like the feminine, pop music and neoliberal fantasies. Blue Skies Forever was their first production. This season you can also see their second production SPARE TIME WORK.
The persuasiveness of the actors, who perform the strangest actions with bitter earnest, ensures that the packed audience’s concentration doesn’t waver for a moment. – METROPOLIS M
A form that balances between a historical plea for emancipation, installation performance and wacky rabbit-hole. – TAZette
by and with Melissa Mabesoone & Oshin Albrecht (buren) | third eye Charlotte Van Den Eynde | voice coach Jakob Ampe | music and sound buren, Benjamin Dousselaere & Ferre Marnef | set design buren & Dominiek Colpaert | light Frouke Van Gheluwe & Ezra Veldhuis | support de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, STUK, Vooruit, De Brakke Grond, wpZimmer, Gouvernement, CC Scharpoord
