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PREMIERE KATHARSIS - APRIL 29, 2023 @ NTGent Minnemeers
On April 29th 2023 Katharsis, by Steffi Mennen, will premiere in NTGent Minnemeers on Dag van de Dans.
Katharsis is an ongoing research about time and personality. Do memories stay inside our body? How can we relive a memory through movement? How do we grasp something intangible?
The performers, all 60+, have had many experiences and memories, kept in storage within their body. Can we find a (movement)language to speak about these experiences and their effect on the body? Steffi uses not only movement to investigate the effect of time on personalities but she also guides the performers into using other media such as drawing, photography and writing. The artistic proces of Katharsis has created a collective identity.
These life experiences or moments in time pass by, is there a way to archive them?
WORK BY JONATHAN AT GROUP EXHIBITION A SENSE OF PLACE
Jonathan has been invited by PEP (Photography Exploration Project), along with other artists, to show his work at the group exhibition a sense of place, which runs from April 1st until April 29th 2023 at B-Part in Berlin, Germany.
The exhibited artists show how their photographic practice can express "a sense of place" which, by definition, relates to how someone perceives and experiences an environment. It can be described as a conscious awareness or sensation of a region or location. This incorporates the physical nature of a place but also our emotional response to it, reflecting the way we connect with our environment. This feeling of belonging is essential and fragile at the same time, because it can be altered by external factors such as urban or climate change that can for example jeopardize the ancestral homeland and rights of certain communities. Photographs are also important in this sense because they contribute to the legacy that we leave for future generations, so they can see and feel our way of life and the deep connections we as individuals experience.
ONGOING
JANUARY
December 2021 - ongoing - exhibition
blanco - Jonathan De Maeyer
Stadhuissteeg #1, Gent, BE
9 - 27 January 2023 - guest teaching
Loose Control - Pieter Desmet
Royal Conservatory, Antwerpen, BE
12 - 26 January 2023 - guest teaching
Loose Control - Pieter Desmet
Kunsthumaniora, Brussel, BE
29 January 2023 - workshop
Loose Control - Pieter Desmet
La Luna Dance Center, Ancona, IT
MARCH
20 - 24 March 2023 - residency
My August feels like December, Pieter Desmet
Ultima Vez, Brussel, BE
28 March - 9 April 2023 - residency
Katharsis, Steffi Mennen
VierNulVier, Gent, BE
APRIL
1-29 April 2023 - group exhibition
a sense of place with work by a.o. Jonathan De Maeyer
B-Part, Berlin, DE
3 - 6 April 2023 - residency
My August feels like December, Pieter Desmet
Ultima Vez, Brussel, BE
24 - 28 April 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
ClubSoda - DansBrabant, Tilburg, NL
29 April 2023 - premiere
Katharsis - Steffi Mennen
NTGent Minnemeers, Gent, BE
MAY
1 - 5 May 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
ClubSoda - DansBrabant, Tilburg, NL
3 May 2023 - try-out
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
ClubSoda - Brabant, Tilburg, NL
27 May 2023 - screening
Togetherness - Pieter Desmet
Municipal Gallery Casa Bianca, Thessaloniki, GR
JUNE
30 May - 9 June 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
Zuidpool, Antwerpen, BE
9 June 2023 - try-out
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
Zuidpool, Antwerpen, BE
JULY
3-7 July 2023 - workshop
Loose Control - Pieter Desmet
International Dace Week, Budapest, HU
10 - 14 July 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
WALPURGIS|deFENIKS, Mortsel, BE
24-28 July 2023 - workshop
Loose Control - Pieter Desmet
DO The Festival, PO
SEPTEMBER
4 - 15 September 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
VONK, Hasselt, BE
OCTOBER
9 - 13 October 2023 - residency
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
C-TAKT, Pelt, BE
NOVEMBER
4 November 2023 - premiere
My August feels like December - Pieter Desmet
De Spil, Roeselare, BE
START OF THE NEW CREATION MY AUGUST FEELS LIKE DECEMBER
The creation of My August feels like December by Pieter Desmet starts on April 24th with a residency at DansBrabant in Tilburg, the Netherlands. My August feels like December will be an intimate, multidisciplinary performance where contemporary dance, digital video art, sound design and textile scenography work together to develop a contemporary grief ritual. The loss of his parents, and the little space our society leaves for introspection and expression around grief had a great impact on him. With this creation, Pieter wants to create a framework where individual grief experiences can be connected based on what they have in common.
During the residency at DansBrabant, the artistic team, consisting of Pieter Desmet, Martha Gardner, Meron Verbelen, James Hall and Robbe Vandenven, is doing an initial physical investigation in the studio based on the question of what physical reactions grieving brings with it, and how that can be authentically embodied within the context of an artistic research. They look at how different their individual physical reactions to mourning can be; how one with their own personal deeper story relates to common similarities that are universally recognised such as feelings of comfort, belonging and recognition in the other. In addition, the search begins to translate the research into digital video art, which James Hall will take on, and the relationship between that medium and the dancing/moving, as well as the feeling body.
WORKSHOP LOOSE CONTROL THIS SUMMER IN HUNGARY & POLAND
This summer Pieter will be guiding the workshop Loose Control at the International Dance Week Budapest in Hungary (3 - 7 July) and at DO The Festival in Poland (24 - 28 July).
Loose Control is an amalgamation of various movement ideas and techniques from Pieter's past and present. During the workshop we look for the balance between loosening and controlling our bodies and their movements.
The workshop is divided in two parts. First we focus on connecting physical and dynamic oppositions to each other in order to find different ways of performing movement. We look for different ways of using momentum, effort, (counter) weight and rhythm in order to personalise the shared movements and phrases. Keeping in mind that we all have our unique body and aiming at finding authenticity within framed material.
In the second part we explore the sustainability and awareness of our body while moving through durational and improvisation exercises that seek extremities in individual and shared time, space, flow and weight.
Next to the search for authenticity and opposing forces working together, a main goal of the workshop is to have fun together and enjoy our bodies moving in space together.