Burning Ice #9

For IN VOID, Kris Verdonck combines a number of existing works with three new installations. Using very old theatre techniques and new multimedia he gives shape to ‘virtual presences’. Together they make up a haunted house where the objects come to life.

Unrecognisable in his black and silver bee suit with Mickey-Mouse head, dancer Marc Iglesias appears on stage to the sound of Brazilian lounge music. He waddles and jumps, a dancing cartoon. UNTITLED is an amusing and wry dance about a time when entertainment is destroying everything.

Annie Dorsen has programmed two laptops in such a way that every evening they perform an improvised dialogue based on a famous television debate between Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky. An amusing dialogue about man in the digital age.

Technological developments lead to a potential new era, that of Technological Singularity. Sandy Williams creates a performance about the tension between our raw, flawed and incomplete human nature and the immaculate potential of a digitised future.

The raw materiality of the set, the physical sound and unavoidable language of movement make Meanwhile, an apocalyptic performance in which the passage of time and the relationship between man and his environment become tangible. This show has been rescheduled to season 2016-17 due to planning problems.

A rain of ash floats down onto a musician and his instrument. Its impact on the musician and his music slowly becomes visible. Sound and vision gradually transform – until finally everything judders to a halt. How does ‘little’ man relate to the ‘grandeur’ of the universe?

Nine performers appear and disappear through openings in a wall of mirrors. Each appearance is a scene based on situations from everyday life. The choreography of the piece portrays human existence as perpetual motion.

Young theatre maker Orion Maxted builds a performance machine. Humans take the role of the different machine parts – applying a simple algorhythm, they transform each other’s words and gestures into complex structures.

Imminent climatological, political and ideological tipping points raise the question: are we literally ‘falling out of history’? Philosopher/activist Lieven De Cauter talks with philosopher Isabelle Stengers.

Oikos presents the Dutch translation of Degrowth, the standard work on this topic. Prof. Paul De Grauwe (London School of Economics) engages in discussion with Federico Demaria, editor of the book.

During BURNING ICE #9 Lawrence Malstaf presents an adapted version of Tipping Point. A large water-filled disc carefully balances on top of a steel support, tilting up and down. An air bubble slowly travels around, disrupting the disc’s balance.

In the framework of Kaaitheater's Burning Ice festival, visual artist Jaakko Pallasvuo will organize a Worktable around the vague feeling that our civilization is approaching its end. An invitation to think about refusal as a form of practice, to meditate on radical artworld quitters like Lee Lozano and Charlotte Posenenske.

During BURNING ICE #9 British artist and writer Tim Etchells (artistic director of Forced Entertainment) showcases four captivating videos at the Kaaistudio's: So Small, Erasure, Paint it Black and Live Forever.

Beside his opening lecture and meeting with philosopher Isabelle Stengers on Monday, February 15th, Lieven De Cauter also made an installation under the title Welcome to Post-History. The installation can be visited till Saturday February 20th in the foyer of the Kaaitheater.