PROJECT

Spare Time

Spare Time is a constructed, videogame-like park with an endless set of possibilities. The set makes one think of Minecraft: an ultimate space where everything seems possible in the infinity of virtual reality. Flat characters enter the set in the shape of humans and chairs. They ‘neighour’: they walk and act routinely and seem to need each other. When the scenography or terrain changes, their limits shift. What generates freedom for one, forms an obstacle for the other. Spare Time questions our use of leisure time: are we as free as we think? When we dispose of an endless set of possibilities, do we feel liberated, or oppressed?

Dorothy and Officer are recuperated and appropriated figures from the visual arts, mainstream media and pop culture. They appear in Pipilotti Rist’s Ever is over all, Beyonce’s Hold Up, The Wizard of Oz,… buren wants to investigate what these figures can mean in Spare Time and what their role could be in the theatre space.

Première: spring 2018 – CAMPO (Ghent)

buren

https://www.burencollective.com/

At the end of 2012 Oshin Albrecht (°1986) and Melissa Mabesoone (°1988) founded the collective 'buren'. Their work consists of performances, videos, texts, photos and installations. They navigate through themes as femininity, community, domesticity, sexuality, labour, popmusic and neoliberal fantasies. These subjects are approached with a sense of irony and humor as well as a future-oriented imagination. Central is the de/re-construction of image and language. They play with different meanings of words, gestures and things, creating objects to be handled as props or presented as art- objects.

'Blue Skies Forever' is a performance that plays with the frontal gaze of the conventional theatre set up, female representations and media references. Together with Peter Aers the duo developed a salon 'To Care as Caress' at Vrijstaat O. With Frank&Robbert/Robbert&Frank they created the exhibition 'The Pursuit of the Gentlemen’s Gentlemen' at Croxhapox. April 2017 their book 'Confusion of Tongues' was published by Posture Editions in collaboration Koen Brams. At the end of 2017 they became HISK laureates.

Credits

Concept and performance: Melissa Mabesoone and Oshin Albrecht◊Music: developed in collaboration with Ferre Marnjef◊Supported by: the Flemish Government, Cultuurcentrum Scharpoord, HISK◊Residencies: Vooruit, KAAP, Netwerk Aalst, wpZimmer