Untitled 1

An Attempt to Create Meaning in a Space that could go Completely Dark

Astrid De Haes & Abel Ghekiere

What about grief that cannot be released, grief waiting to explode? Four dancers and five musicians engage in a dialogue in an attempt to create space for grief, to find one another in it and then lose each other again.

Untitled 1 (An Attempt to Create Meaning in a Space that Could Go Completely Dark) is an attempt to dance the suffocation and solace of grief. Not to mention that it’s also an attempt to bring these young makers together for the first time in an interplay of music, dance, costume and scenography. Bodies become knotted up emotions; instruments and dancers converse together in false notes. Eli Verkeyn designed costumes inspired by the colour palette of Belgian artist Joris Ghekiere, as a negative image of a reality that is not present. The intensity changes in a never-ending search for balance.

As such, this show aims to slide off the stage and slip into the seats, crawl into people and reflect their own emotions. While the individual experience is paramount, the show as a whole is inevitably a shared experience. There are no imposed emotions, stories, associations. The musical quest becomes the quest of the performance: "Feel what you want to feel. I only make you uncomfortable."

direction & production Astrid De Haes - soundscape Abel Ghekiere - costumes Eli Verkeyn - scenography & lighting design - Dauwke Fredrix, Sinan Poffyn - Dramaturgy Jenne Van Daele - dance Margot Masquelier, Olivia Van De Peer, Ebe Meynckens, Aron Wouters, Zoë Demoustier - music Abel Ghekiere, Maarten Joosten, Tobias Volckaert, Ana Van Liedekerke, Orlan Ghekiere - artistic advice Alain Platel - dramaturgical advice David Weber-Krebs - with the support of Fameus, the City of Antwerp, Sabam for Culture, WALPURGIS|deFENIKS and Destelheide - coproduction Joris Ghekiere Estate


Dates & tickets