10.07.2022
Brief Encounters '22 #1

Since 2017, Lustwarande has enriched the annual exhibition with manifestations of ephemeral sculpture, forms of sculpture, which are limited in time and which vary in duration from a few minutes to a few hours, but of which nothing is left in the end. These temporary works, called event sculptures, are presented under the title Brief Encounters. They are breathtaking and unforgettable.

In 2022 Brief Encounters will take place for the fifth time, on two Sunday afternoons. On both afternoons, three artists/duos and collectives will present event sculptures, all but one specially made for Brief Encounters '22.

The curatorial duo of Chris Driessen, artistic director of Lustwarande, and Steven Vandervelden, director of STUK – House for Dance, Image and Sound and of the performance festival Playground, both in Louvain, is responsible for the selection of the participating artists. Their choice was based on presenting renowned artists for the first time in the Netherlands, on presenting up-and-coming talents and on inclusion.

Caz Egelie – ‘?? - wait, I thought I was supposed to be a generous cook in a greasy kitchen’ - true stories told by The Prompter (2022)

The artistic practice of Caz Egelie (b. The Hague, Netherlands, 1994, lives in Utrecht) is hybrid in every sense of the word. Their performances and installations consist of a combination of painting, graphic and digital elements, objects and costumes. Visual art, popular culture, fashion and theatre are mixed together. There is no hierarchy and there are no boundaries between different media or visual conventions.

Egelie has a background as an art teacher, which explains the many art-historical references in their work. They take inspiration from art-history books and museum visits. The work of other people is freely cited. Egelie asks a question, extremely relevant in the digital age, about what authenticity, originality and the artist’s signature mean, what is real and what is fake, and to what extent appropriation and reproduction are permissible.

Egelie also recreates works of art: in the form of digital scans of antique sculptures, for example. But then adds contemporary elements. Like a Roman statue wearing a party hat. Sometimes the scans are turned into 3D animations, which talk and move. The digital and the physical worlds, as well as the historical and contemporary, come together in a surreal way.

For Brief Encounters '22, Egelie has created a two-part performance with the curious title ‘?? - wait, I thought I was supposed to be a generous cook in a greasy kitchen’ – true stories told by The Prompter. The prompter here is Egelie, who stands on a stage, speaking and singing to the audience from the perspective of sculptures: what do they experience when they are looked at? Visitors are confronted with their own voyeurism. The second part of the performance is done by others, at various locations in the park. They have a picnic, read a book or make out with each other in sets equipped with costumes and props, referring to scenes from paintings from periods including the Rococo and antiquity and also to visual codes from the 1970s gay scene, such as the hanky code.

concept, costumes & props
Caz Egelie

performers
Thomas van den Berg
Emma Broholm
Tomás Diafas
Caz Egelie
Jorik Amit Galama
Silver Huber
Marulina Mooij
Robin Pocornie

direction
Ruben Planting

assistents
Maya Berkhof
Vita de Pater

Joris Roosen - Encounter / Reunion (2022)

Joris Roosen – Encounter, Reunion (2022)

Two years of the Covid pandemic have made us accustomed to keeping our distance. Hugs, handshakes and the typically Dutch greeting with three kisses had to give way to bumping fists, elbows, feet or even just nodding from one and a half metres away. Faces were hidden behind masks.

The profound lack of physical contact between people inspired Joris Roosen (b. Tilburg, Netherlands, 1997, lives in Breda, Netherlands) to create the performance Encounter, Reunion. As a result of the distance that people had to maintain for so long, Roosen felt himself becoming increasingly alienated, not only from others but also from himself, a ‘non-person’ in his own words. Based on his desire to overcome this loneliness and fear, he developed his performance, which symbolises a renewed encounter, a reunion, a reappraisal of the physical encounter that offers comfort.

Roosen graduated from St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda two years ago. He studied visual art, but his work shows an affinity with fashion, gender and materiality. The artist is interested in the areas of overlap. Starting with conceptual steps (handiwork, waste matter), he began to combine materials and the body, creating masks, living sculptures and wearable objects.

Roosen also made the body masks for his Brief Encounters '22 performance himself. Using new and waste materials, he crafted extremely sophisticated face and body masks. The lace is hardened, embroidered into shape and then further sculpted at high temperature. Resembling insects made of delicate black lace, their shapes reminiscent of stag beetles, they are attached to the performers’ heads, arms and spines.

From different directions, four creatures slowly move closer and closer to each other. They feel each other out, revolve around each other, carefully, attentively. They progress on all fours, making animal-like movements. In a choreography of powerful touches, they push each other until they are standing upright. Slowly, they rid each other of the masks that are hiding their bodies. The creatures become people. A transition from non-human to human, liberated from their shells, freed from their fear, and intimately connected.

concept & bodymasks
Joris Roosen

performers
Rex Clemensia
Lucas Devroe
Niels Gordijn
Leo Rathmann

dramaturgical advise
Arjan Gebraad

Encounter, Reunion was partly realized with a subsidy from the municipality of Breda.