Kris Verdonck created for the performance ACT the installation MASS #2, four possible poetic landscapes for a Beckett text.

MASS #2 is a poetic, moving landscape. A graphite-grey mass flows slowly as if it was water. The matter appears light and yet heavy at the same time. And, as if tectonic plates are interacting, the spectator sees mountains and valleys created before his eyes, only to dissolve in the next instant. A living landscape, geology in a time-lapse. 

On view at the foyer of Kaaitheater during Het TheaterFestival 2020 from 3 until 13 September 2020, ongoing from 11:00 

Living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction are characteristic for the installations by Lawrence Malstaf. His responsive environments generate theatrical situations involving the visitor as an essential presence in their dramaturgy. In a complex play with unstable order, chance and change, his machines display emotion, doubt and other human qualities.

Closing weekend of EXHIBIT at Le Tetris, Le Havre (FR) with works & installations by Lawrence Malstaf, Alex Verhaest, Julie Stephen Chheng & Marco Barotti. 

Shrink-performances: 5 & 6 September 2020 at 11:00 - 14:00 - 16:00 - 18:00 & 21:00

Free entry after reservation

LE TETRIS

In ACT, Kris Verdonck explores various aspects of the relation between the human on the verge of disappearing in the work of Samuel Beckett. ACT approaches Beckett in three ways: with a monologue with Beckett texts (Stories and texts for nothing), performed by Johan Leysen, with a scientist, invited to react to Beckett and with an autonomous scenography, a possible landscape for a Beckett text.
The variety and multidisciplinary approach reflect the complexity of Beckett’s work and are at the same time an attempt to literally take apart this complexity.

A Two Dogs Company / Kris Verdonck

07/09/2020 Het Nationale Theater, Theater aan het Spui, Den Haag (NL)
10/09/2020 Het Nederlands Theaterfestival, ITA, Amsterdam (NL)
11 & 12/09/2020 het TheaterFestival, Kaaitheater, Brussels (BE)
16/09/2020 Grand Theatre, Groningen (NL)

Tromsø palms grow along roadsides, abandoned properties and shorelines. Like undesired weeds they thrive along the urban borders. A metaphor for things not planned.  

In the same spirit we use them to build a construction without plan. We gather people and start building. No rules only dried  palms, tape and gravity. Does it end up in arguments or collaboration, beautiful art or collapse? It surely gets complicated. 

For the Sjøfront Laboratorium we gather people on a controversial development lot in the heart of Tromsø to build a different future. 

Lawrence Malstaf
STATEX

Man facing nature maintains an ambiguous relationship between desire for control, separation, but also a need of healing and connection. Nature becomes a landscape through the gaze of historians, farmers, town planners, artists ... In art, the diversity of approaches induces a variety of definitions. Whether realistic or imaginary, the landscape is like a mental territory of hope, a call to contemplation and to take a step back from our relationship with the environment. The exhibition «PAYSAGES» offers a point of view from the masters of landscape prints, through visual artists to digital artists.

MASS #2 by Kris Verdonck is a poetic, moving landscape. A graphite-grey mass flows slowly as if it was water. The matter appears light and yet heavy at the same time. And, as if tectonic plates are interacting, the spectator sees mountains and valleys created before his eyes, only to dissolve in the next instant. A living landscape, geology in a time-lapse. 

PUZZLE
Kris Verdonck

Murmur was part of the official selection of the 2020 International film festival Rotterdam, in their "Bright Future" program. Murmur  is a new collaborative work by film maker Jan Locus and Stijn Demeulenaere. The film is an exploration of the dawn at the swamp of Ganshoren, the last bit of swamp in Brussels. Murmur  knew its cinematic world premiere at the 2020 IFFR and was also selected for among others the 2020 Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin and the Festival International du Film sur l'Art in Montréal. The work also won the 2nd prize at The Engine Room International Sound Art Award.

Upcoming screenings September 2020:
10 - 17 September Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film, (Split, HR)
28 - 30 September Laterale Film Festival, (Cosenza, IT)

tele-present wind - This installation consists of a series of 42 x/y tilting mechanical devices connected to thin dried plant stalks installed in a gallery and a dried plant stalk connected to an accelerometer installed outdoors. When the wind blows it causes the stalk outside to sway. The accelerometer detects this movement transmitting the motion to the grouping of devices in the gallery. Therefore the stalks in the gallery space move in real-time and in unison based on the movement of the wind outside.

Maintenant Festival
David Bowen