Due to Corona, Mestizo Arts Platform (MAP) switched to WIPCOOP 2020 PLAN B(ehind doors) together with partners and artists. Work In Progress was screened without an audience and the evening programme – WIPCOOP PLAYS – was cancelled or postponed.
MAP decided to make a documentary. To give the artists and the project even more visibility in a year in which so much happened, but … behind doors.
With thanks to artists Aminata Demba, Aïcha Cissé, Junior Mthombeni, Salim Haouach, Lila Magnin, Tister Ikomo, Gloria Boateng and Jade Wheeler, to founder WIPCOOP Gerardo Salinas and some WIPCOOP partners Kristin Rogghe (KVS), Koen Haagdorens (hetpaleis) and Flora Chassang (Lezarts Urbains) for their contribution.
A documentary by Mestizo Arts Platform/WIPCOOP, directed by Lies Van der Auwera.
More info: www.mestizoartsplatform.be
WIPCOOP = MESTIZO ARTS PLATFORM + ARENBERG, KVS, KUNSTZ, CAMPO, KAAITHEATER, TONEELHUIS, MARTHA!TENTATIEF, DE CENTRALE, DETHEATERMAKER, MADAM FORTUNA, NTGENT, KOPERGIETERY, FAMEUS, 0090, WPZIMMER, ARSENAAL/LAZARUS, CULTUURCENTRUM & RADAR MECHELEN, RATAPLAN, OC NOVA, BE HUMAN, PIANOFABRIEK/CITYLAB, VICTORIA DELUXE, SPREEKUUR (PODIUMKUNSTEN), THEATERFESTIVAL, GLOBE AROMA, THEATER AAN ZEE, LEZARTS URBAINS, FABULEUS, WORKSPACEBRUSSELS, TRANSFO COLLECT, VOORUIT, LARF!/DE KAZEMATTEN, BIJ DE VIEZE GASTEN, ZINNEMA, DANSPUNT, THASSOS, SOCHA, KC NONA, DE MAAN, DESINGEL, ZOMER VAN ANTWERPEN, WALPURGIS, HETPALEIS, RAS EL HANOUT, ULTIMA VEZ, MOUSSEM, BRONKS, CC JACQUES FRANCK, LE BAMP, STUK, STORM OP KOMST, IMPULSION DANCE / MET STEUN VAN: VLAAMSE GEMEENSCHAP
The Way Back is a road movie about borders, migration and Europe. As a young musician, Hussein Rassim fled from Iraq to Belgium. Together with his wife, musician Juliette Lacroix, he retraces his migration journey in the opposite direction in this film.
During the run of Mawda, that means tenderness, you can discover this gem of a documentary. On Friday 8 October, Hussein Rassim, Juliette Lacroix and Saif Al-Qaissy will be playing a live concert after the evening performance of Mawda, that means tenderness.
Soprano Ana Naqe and choreographer Nadine Baboy, two well-known faces within the KVS family, have created a wonderful video registration of works by composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, in collaboration with Elda Lardo (pianist at the Berlin Opera).
The title (On)Vergankelijk(heid) derives from Korngold’s Unvergänglichkeit, one of the performed compositions. The work and its title fit perfectly with the times and the pandemic that has been plaguing our world for over a year, for multiple reasons. Regardless of the crisis, these three artists don’t want to wallow in sadness, but chose to seek connection with each other and with you, their audience, through an extraordinary trialogue, each working from their own strength and discipline.
We are delighted to show this film on our platform KVS 24/7. The performance was recorded at AMUZ in Antwerp, a wonderful location. Enjoy.
Seventeen is the result of a joint collaboration between Cesar Janssens and Griet Dobbels. An investigation into the expanding universe and the cause of the Big Bang leads to the emergence of a poetic world, a journey that takes us to the core of our human existence: the (re)discovery of wonder, the vibration of beauty and all its contradictions.
Visual artist Griet Dobbels and creative squid Cesar Janssens met each other by chance. With open minds and a longing to experiment they dived into the water together. Below the surface, they discovered a forest of coincidences and ostensible facts.
The process that arose was one of searching and finding, trial and error, chaos and control, discovery and creation. The conversations were like tick-tock, word and answer, play and inspiration, man and woman, resistance and acceptance.
On 17 April 2021, the stage at de Warande cultural centre burst open. There was no audience. The space was filled with Griet and Cesar’s installation of sound sculptures, drawings, video projections, word pictures, paper objects that related to a dancer, a taiko drummer, a trumpeter, a soprano, a cameraman and seven smartphone film-makers. Everything was orchestrated by Cesar Janssens and Griet Dobbels. The group immersed themselves in a two-hour long creative explosion. The ground shook. The echo lingered on the inner sound mirrors.
The artists cloistered themselves in the editing room and plunged into the audio files and film footage. Image and music merged seamlessly into a new universe, a landscape in which to get lost. Seventeen is a synaesthetic journey of the best kind: a cycle that moves from stillness to post-punk and back again.
Els Vermeersch, Companion d’art
Duration video is 17 minutes, for optimal quality, please view video on computer screen with headphone.
17
Seventeen is a prime number. The universe is made up of seventeen elementary particles? The haiku consists of seventeen syllables. 17 April 2021 was a Saturday. The video Seventeen is the first vibration. Sixteen more will follow.
16
Synaesthesia is a special type of metaphor. The senses interact in a unique way. The stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.
15
A sound painting is like an idiophone without words. The sound refers not only to sound but also to movement, taste, smell, texture, colour and line.
14
Collaboration is working together.
13
Do not confuse equivalence with equality.
12
Always try again.
11
In the dance of methodologies, place all the tools on the table at once and resist ingrained codes. On the way to a new kind of beauty.
10
The forest of coincidences, or what we call serendipity, is the joy of making wonderful discoveries by accident.
9
Ostensible facts: things that seem true, but aren’t.
8
Co-creating is influencing. Ownership is shared.
7
Friction and connection are about searching and meeting.
6
Diving together into the pool of coincidences creates friction and connection. It tilts at the friction line.
5
Back and forth, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
4
Trust is about creating a safe space. That space is created by mutual communicative vibrations. It is the vibration of the day.
3
From stillness to post-punk, backwards and forwards. Order and chaos are an anchored cycle.
2
Everything is vibration. Vibration is everything. It is the bringing together and (re)discovery of coincidences that leads to the vibration of wonder, the vibration of beauty, and all their contradictions. It is an investigation into the expanding universe, into the cause of the mega-vibration, the Big Bang. To reach the core of our own human universe, which dances on fundamental vibrations.
1
Again and again. There is the temporality of the result. There is the eternal process. Falling down and getting back up. How to get lost in the inexplicable, the unexpected…
De Vrije Universiteit Brussel, de Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg en het Risicovechtsportplatform slaan de “bokshandschoenen” in elkaar. Drie partners in drie rondes over het potentieel van de harde vechtsporten. Stap 30 maart 2021 in de virtuele boksring met studenten, vechtsporters, wetenschappers en kunstenaars.
ICE is choreographed for a body and a bunch of ropes. Bahar Temiz starts from stories about polar explorers, and their expeditions to Antarctica in the beginning of the 20th century. Driven by a desire for discovery, they expose themselves to extreme conditions and put their lives at risk, and step into an unknown world of ice – a world that is now fading away. Past and future coexist under the dazzling crust of the cold.
Coloured Swans 3: Harriet’s reMix is a dance performance that forms the third part in Moya Michael’s Coloured Swans series. For this piece, Moya collaborates with four young creatives – Loucka Fiagan, Oscar Cassamajor, Milo Slayers and Zen Jefferson – and investigates the future in relation to the past and the present. These young performers represent the future, carrying with them visions of hope and alternative worlds, while also maintaining a dialogue with their ancestors. A sub-Saharan African proverb says that we stand on the shoulders of giants. But what if we cannot tap into the greatness of our ancestors to guide us safe and sound into the future?
Afropean // Human Being is a journey through what it means to have African roots in Europe. A cast of five share their experiences: where are we from, where are we going – what is it like when you’re always the “other” but yet also “from here”. And “From” – what does it actually mean? Does a person with African roots think of it differently than a Flemish person?
During the battle against apartheid, ANC resistance fighter Maurice Mthombeni wrote a letter to his confidante, Winnie Madikizela, better known as Winnie Mandela. The letter was however intercepted by the apartheid regime and published in the national newspaper of South Africa, in order to sow division within the ANC. Maurice Mthombeni fled to Europe and continued the battle from afar.
His son, director and KVS face Junior Mthombeni, long had the idea of creating a performance around Winnie Mandela. Now, within the current European climate of disunity that pits people against one another, he found the time ripe to use Winnie Mandela as a source of inspiration on stage. The performance doesn’t only relate to this particular woman who, despite humiliation, abuse and exile, continued her resistance against the apartheid regime with untiring vigour – it also wants to emphasise what we today can learn from her characteristic fighting spirit.
This time we look not through white but coloured lenses. KVS faces Mthombeni, Fikry El Azzouzi and Cesar Janssens, together the trio Jr.c.E.sA.r, set out in search for answers together with nine actresses, singers and performers from the African diaspora. When do you rebel? When do you sacrifice your personality to the greater narrative? Together they turn the white, male, Eurocentric canon on its head. They denounce the lack of representation and criticise the official version of the story.
