Tallieu Art Office

The Physical Mind

Maintenant Festival
Rennes (F)

During a residency in Shanghai, Teun Vonk discovered by chance that it eased his stressed body and mind to apply physical pressure to his body. Contrary to what one may expect, the registration of sensory input does not improve in a heightened state of sensitivity, such as stress. Such a state serves the evolutionary purpose by filtering out irrelevant information, only focusing on the accurate response: fight or flight. When experiencing such a state, applying pressure to the body has a strong stress-relieving effect.

With The Physical Mind, Vonk seeks to let participants experience the relation between their physical and mental states by applying physical pressure to the body. The installation consists of two inflatable objects. The participant lays down in between, is lifted up and gently squeezed between the two inflatable objects. The lifting creates an unstable feeling, a slightly stressful sensation that is directly contrasted with a secure feeling of being gently squeezed between two soft objects. Paradoxically, this forced physical stimulus reduces feelings anxiety and paradoxically stress and the flight- or fight-response disappear. The participant experiences and increased sensitivity to stimuli, normalized alertness and a calm state of mind. The positive effects of this increased receptivity can continue for a few hours after the experience. The installation evokes empathy in bystanders who witness a participant undergo the experience.

https://www.maintenant-festival.fr

Nemo Observatorium 02002 in 'VISIONS'

Les Halles
Brussels (B)

Nemo Observatorium 02002 will give you the unique opportunity to launch a hurricane and witness the consequences safe inside the eye of the cyclone or somewhere far removed where there is no chance of skidding.

Styrofoam particles are blown around in a big transparent PVC cylinder by 5 strong fans. Visitors can take place one by one on the armchair in the middle of the whirlpool or observe from the outside. On the chair, in the eye of the storm it is calm and safe.Spectacular at first sight, this installation turns out to mesmerise as a kind of meditation machine. One can follow the seemingly cyclic patterns, focus on the different layers of 3D pixels or listen to its waterfall sound. One could call it a training device, challenging the visitor to stay centered and find peace in a fast changing environment.

After a while the space seems to expand and one's sense of time deludes. Impressive and hypnotic.

Les Halles

Transporter 02008 in 'Visions'

Les Halles
Brussels (B)

Transporter 02008 - Two conveyor belts of about 13m long are set up next to each other and running in opposite directions. People can lay down on them to be transported very slowly. Hidden under the surface an invisible mechanism produces a subtle yet intense tactile experience for the spine. Halfway the trajectory the visitors are confronted with two horizontal mirrors moving up and down above them.

Les Halles

flyAI at Przemiany Festival - ‘Civilization of Algorithms’

Copernicus Science Centre
Warsaw (PL)

FlyAI creates a situation where the fate of a colony of living houseflies is determined by the accuracy of artificial intelligence software. The installation uses the TensorFlow machine learning image recognition library to classify images of live houseflies. As the flies fly and land in front of a camera, their image is captured. The captured image is classified by the image recognition software and a list of guessed items is ranked 1 through 5. Each of the items is assigned a percentage based on how likely the software thinks that the listed item is what it sees. If “fly” is ranked number 1 on the list, a pump delivers water and nutrients to the colony based on the percentage of the ranking. If “fly” is not ranked number 1 the pump does not deliver water and nutrients to the colony. The system is setup to run indefinitely with an indeterminate outcome.

Przemiany Festival 2018

Conversations (at he end of the world)

On Tour
Antwerpen (B) - Amsterdam (NL) - Leeuwarden (NL)

What do you say, do or make when the end is nigh? In Conversations at the end of the world, a new piece by Kris Verdonck / A Two Dogs Company for large auditoria, five figures find themselves in an empty theatre space. They have only their bodies, their capabilities and the time that is left to them. Together these five figures, played by Johan Leysen, Jan Steen, Jeroen Van der Ven, José Kuijpers and the renowned pianist Marino Formenti, create a portrait of humankind in the crazy twentieth century – a century in which man’s image has been significantly eroded and whose wounds we still carry with us today. Waiting for the catastrophe that is inevitably coming, or in the midst of it, they welcome the audience to ‘a last evening’. When faced with death, the characters react with boredom, panic, madness, lethargy, nonsense and absurdity. Their absurdity is fed by the crazy logic of the war, ecological disasters, and all kinds of crises. Despite being in shock, they try to understand what is going on outside, and it is this absurd reaction to a cruel reality that lies behind this new project.

A Two Dogs Company/Kris Verdonck
Het Zuidelijk Toneel
Het Theaterfestival
Nederlands Theater Festival
Stadsschouwburg Leeuwarden

NORDTING

RakettNatt
Tromsø (NO)

You never really know what will happen when Amund Sjølie Sveen and his comrades enter the stage. Well, one thing we know; he swings his verbal ammunition high and low, left and right.
NORDTING is more a public meeting meets standup meets political meeting meets concert meets performance than anything else. Actor, writer, journalist and musician Amund Sjølie Sveen is known for making stage productions aiming directly at the elite; the people with power and money. He also questions the position of art itself in today's society.
NORDTING is lead by Amund Sjølie Sveen with Liv Hanne Haugen and Erik Stifjell and various local guests.

NORDTING
RakettNatt

Detail

ACC Gallery
Weimar (DE)

The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. 
(Samuel Beckett, Murphy)

In the installation DETAIL, a large and massive boulder hangs on the ceiling. It is hanging on a steel cable, on a ball bearing, allowing it to fully turn around its axis. The ball bearing is put in motion by a steel wheel rotated by a motor which takes its energy from solar panels. The whole chain leads to a relatively simple situation: whenever the sun shines, the boulder turns around its axis. Once the sun shines, and therefore the stone starts to revolve, the mechanism is simultaneously unrelenting: the fatalism of a world that has to and will turn. A mobile with sunlight. A surreal image with an undertone of danger and yet fascinating at the same time. 

Kris Verdonck

Conversations (at he end of the world)

Theater aan Zee - TAZ
Versluys/Dôme, Northlaan 13, Oostende (B)

What do you say, do or make when the end is nigh? In Conversations at the end of the world, a new piece by Kris Verdonck / A Two Dogs Company for large auditoria, five figures find themselves in an empty theatre space. They have only their bodies, their capabilities and the time that is left to them. Together these five figures, played by Johan Leysen, Jan Steen, Jeroen Van der Ven, José Kuijpers and the renowned pianist Marino Formenti, create a portrait of humankind in the crazy twentieth century – a century in which man’s image has been significantly eroded and whose wounds we still carry with us today. Waiting for the catastrophe that is inevitably coming, or in the midst of it, they welcome the audience to ‘a last evening’. When faced with death, the characters react with boredom, panic, madness, lethargy, nonsense and absurdity. Their absurdity is fed by the crazy logic of the war, ecological disasters, and all kinds of crises. Despite being in shock, they try to understand what is going on outside, and it is this absurd reaction to a cruel reality that lies behind this new project.

TAZ#2018
A Two Dogs Company/Kris Verdonck

Mental Overdrive - Upcoming Gigs

Various Locations
Norway

Mental Overdrive is the moniker Norwegian artist and producer Per Martinsen has released most of his electronic music output under, from early industrial techno through legendary Belgian techno label R&S Records back in 1990, through a variation of dancefloor friendly beats on imprints such as Smalltown Supersound, Discfunction, Full Pupp, Ploink, Music Man and his own Love OD Communications.

27 July 2018 Cafe Hærverk, Oslo (NO)

16 August 2018 Pstereo, Trondheim (NO)

24 - 25 August 2018 RakettNatt, Tromsø (NO)

Annelies Van Parys: Season 2018 - 2019: What to look out for

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Annelies Van Parys
Season 2018 - 2019: What to look out for

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