Michiel Vandevelde
wpZimmer resident in 2019
Michiel Vandevelde studied dance and choreography at P.A.R.T.S., Brussels. He is active as a choreographer, curator, writer and editor. As a freelance curator he worked or works for: Extra City Kunsthal, Het Bos, Bâtard festival, Z33, Precarious Pavilions. He is involved as an editor in the Disagree. magazine, and he has written articles for Etcetera, De Witte Raaf, Rekto:Verso, Mister Motley, etc. From 2017 to 2021 Michiel Vandevelde is artist in residence at Kaaitheater (Brussels, BE). In his work he investigates the elements that constitute or obstruct the contemporary public sphere. He explores which other social, economic and cultural alternatives we can imagine in order to question, challenge and transform dominant logics and ways of organizing. He has been developing a variety of projects both in public space and in (performing) arts institutions.
projects
Our Times
‘Thinking does not play well in an image-based culture. There is not much to see in it. It is not a performing art. – Neil Postman, ‘Amusing ourselves to death’
What role is allotted to thinking in our time? Every day, we are inundated with images and fragments of text. Absorbing all this information is a time-consuming business and reduces our thinking to storage and processing. In this storm of impressions, Michiel Vandevelde pauses to think about the state of thinking.
Our times takes as its starting point a discussion between the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and the curator Daniel Tyradillis, as well as dance material from popular video clips. With this contrasting material, three dancers seek out the conflict between profundity and superficiality. This not only serves as a critique of our time, but is also an attempt to create new ways of thinking. In an exuberant choreography with reappropriated dance, fragments of text and bizarre music, Vandevelde creates space and time that go beyond the imagination.
credits
Concept & choreography: Michiel Vandevelde
Performers: Nestor Garcia Diaz, Jara Vlaeminckx, Michiel Vandevelde
Set & light: Michiel Vandevelde, Tom Bruwier
Feedback: Dries Douibi, Esther Severi, Kristof van Baarle
Technique: Tom Bruwier
Graphic design publication: Ward Heirwegh
Proof reading: Bryana Fritz, Katie Vickers, Antoon Vandevelde, Tom Bruwier
Production: Disagree vzw
Co-production: STUK, Kaaitheater, Vooruit (in the frame of DNA co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union), wpZimmer
Residencies: Bains Connective, STUK, Vooruit, Kaaitheater, wpZimmer
With the support of the Flemish Authorities
International distribution: Something Great
Financial management: Klein Verzet vzw
Special thanks to Alina L. Popa and all the great people that have given feedback along the way