2021 Continuum

Continuum

For the occasion of the selection of Wereldtournee in Antwerpen for Het TheaterFestival!, Benjamin Verdonck will present the new Continuum to the festival. Colorful surfaces on swaying shutters that roll on and off and effortlessly come and go. A viewing box that can engage a larger or smaller audience by day or night, inside or out, without beginning or end. A well-versed recipe of a great many strings, accompanied by a live score by Stef Kamil Carlens.

During his Wereldtournee in Antwerpen (World tour in Antwerp), Benjamin Verdonck travels with a tiny theater box from laundry room to residential center, from front door to balcony. In the box are small objects that he can easily take with him and show to people. A ‘world tour’, but in Antwerp, based on the idea that you can discover the whole world in one city. Armed with small wooden boxes, he lands on Antwerp streets and squares. There he speaks to people to show them how a little fox and a piece of sausage emerge from them. Or he awakens colorful geometric figures to life to music by Philip Glass. Whether in the street or on the big stage, Verdonck creates an imaginative and imaginative space on pocket-size.

#wereldtourneeinantwerpen #hettheaterfestival

foto: Wannes Cré

2021 Regenboog

Regenboog (Rainbow)

This intriguing viewing box contemplates the refraction of light. In utter darkness, hatchways open and close. Shadows fall on the backdrop – the horizon – in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet colours.

Regenboog is the latest newcomer in Verdonck’s ever-growing repertoire of mobile peep shows. Conceived as a playful counterpart to Waldeinsamkeit, they are of similar length and form a special pair.

Created by Benjamin Verdonck and Lucas Van Haesbroeck
Soundtrack by Lieven Stockx
Production Toneelhuis
__

2020 Wereldtournee in Antwerpen


(c) Vincent Delbroux

wereldtournee in Antwerpen (world tour in Antwerp)

For one year I will be performing in Antwerp.
I have been devising, making, collecting and packing 
small and fluid work for some time now, 
work that I can easily take with me
and, wherever, can show to someone.
 
Now I want to take these things 
on a journey of discovery, an adventure,
I want to meet people, bring my work to them, tell stories
then tell stories about the stories I told.

I suspect that the succession of cities
in which I usually show my work
can all be found in the city of Antwerp.
An exercise not to give in to the idea
that you have to be everywhere 
just because you can be anywhere.
Developing a gift for accidentally having
useful encounters and discoveries.
A license perhaps.
A constant movement between
studio and city, city, city and theater, theater and studio.

__

ik ga een jaar lang spelen in Antwerpen.
ik ben al heel lang kleine en wendbare dingen
aan het bedenken,
maken, verzamelen en verpakken
dingen die ik makkelijk kan meenemen
en, waar dan ook, aan iemand tonen kan.

nu wil ik met die dingen op ontdekkingsreis gaan, op avontuur,
ik wil mensen ontmoeten, mijn werk naar hen toebrengen, verhalen vertellen.
vervolgens verhalen vertellen over de verhalen die ik vertelde.

ik heb het vermoeden dat de aaneenrijging van steden
waarin ik mijn werk doorgaans toon
allemaal terug te vinden zijn in deze stad.
een oefening om niet toe te geven aan de idee
dat je overal moet zijn enkel en alleen
omdat je overal kàn zijn.
het ontwikkelen van een gave voor het toevallig maken
van nuttige ontmoetingen en ontdekkingen.
een vrijbrief misschien.
een voortdurende beweging tussen
atelier en stad, stad, stad en theater, theater en atelier.

__

“(…) in the middle of history, in the middle of progress, in the middle of the fight, we learn how we must fight.”
Rosa Luxemburg, Dialectic of Spontaneity and Organisation
“The other project was a scheme for abolishing all words whatsoever (…)
Since words are only names for things, it would be more convenient for all man to carry about them such things as were necessary to express a particular business they are to discourse on. For short conversations a man may carry implements in his pockets and under his arms enough to supply him.”
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels