Belgian Beauties
The first screening features Alain Platel and Mirjam Devriendt's feature-length film “Why We Fight?” and addresses the theme of violence through the use of testimonies and strong dance scenes. A tribute to the arts, but also to humanity, which always seems to be balancing between creating something spectacularly beautiful and horribly cruel. In the second session time and space – some of the basic elements common to both dance and life – are into centre. Each film analyses them in its own way. “Horse power, hand labour, dance” essentially focuses on the confrontation between dance and agriculture. What are yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s gestures? The third session explores a wide variety of worlds – all playing with the tension between reality and fiction: the oneirism of a story that has been choreographed from start to finish (Fiction dans e), the fictionalization of a hard reality (Usures), the materiality of the image and é of improvised dance (Interstices) and Wolfgang Kolb's tender look at the powerful and nuanced work of Roxane Huilmand: on stage, in the rehearsal room and in front of the Montagne Sainte- Victoire (Capricieuse).
17:00 Session 1
Why We Fight
Alain Platel & Mirjam Devriendt B 2021, 97 minutes, color, B 2022, 5 minutes, color, VO FR ST ENG Drawing on their personal experiences, dancers investigate why is there violence in the world around them – as well as the violence that exists within themselves. How to deal with fear, frustration and disappointment in today's world? Is it possible to act non-violently? Or is this privilege only reserved to those who create dance, music, art or words?
19:00 Session 2
Stretch Time Monochromes
Isabella Soupart B 2021, 8 minutes, color, no dialogue
Stretch Time Monochromes is inspired by the work of physicist and philosopher Etienne Klein, who sees boredom as a metaphysical experience. Klein makes us perceive a time that is no longer confused with what it contains. While the dancer and pianist fill the masterful space of the Wild Wild Gallery in Brussels, dialogues from Antonioni's film "L'Eclisse" enter in a conversation with the sounds of the city itself.
Containment
Jolien Naeyaert B 2023, 14 minutes, b/w, VO DE
Containment, directed by Jolien Naeyaert and Ezra Veldhuis, focuses on bodily presence, the physicality of spaces and the sensory aspects of light. Entirely created from a series of still images accompanied by a soundtrack, the filmmakers present Ghent’s library (Boekentoren) as what Henri Lefebvre famously called a 'lived space', proving that buildings – including monuments – are a part of everyday life. (after Steven Jacobs)
Horse power, hand labor, dance
Evi Cats / PARTS B 2022, 5 minn, color, VO ENG
In Horse power, hand labor, dance, fifteen PARTS’ students explore various techniques and repetitive movements investigating the intersection of dance and agriculture. They spend an entire week working in the fields and with horses, dancing and cooking – guided by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Cassiel Gaube (dance), Corentin Hannon & Eva Fillet de Cordeva (horses) and Kevin Lambeets from Zeis & Bijl (agriculture).
The body will thrive
Jason Respilieux/ Petronella Van der Hallen B 2021, 22 minutes, color, no dialogue
An abandoned abbey, empty space, disintegrated walls, wooden structures, large covered windows that allow light to pass through. Two bodies can be distinguished. The Body Will Thrive borrows its title from the photographic book by Lore Stessel - that inspired choreographer Jason Respilieux. The photograph is a precise, well-defined moment in time: diving into this observation, the choreographer reinvents his own relationship with time.
Be a poem
Sima Kathami/ Pierre Droulers B 2022, 44 minutes, colour, no dialogue
Be a poem is a montage of archive footage by artist and choreographer Pierre Droulers. The result is a poem of images and sounds, created by a play of correspondences between fragments of life and dance covering a period of several decades. Far from nostalgia and playing on synesthesia, this arrangement shakes up and reactivates the material that doesn’t just continue to echo but - through its intensity - is turned into present.
21:00 Session 3
Fiction Dansée
Michele Anne De Mey B 2023, 39 minutes, colour, no dialogue
In their childhood home – a brother and sister confront their shared yet very different memories. To the rhythm of their wondering through each of the rooms, dance takes them into their imaginary world on the edge of reality. An ode to life, masterful and playful, between retrospection and the present.
Usures
Sebastien De Buyl B 2022, 28 minutes, colour, VO FR, ENG subtitles
Usures is the result of an encounter with Saïd, a choreographer who has become homeless in 2009. Set in underground corridors – as if they were between two worlds – four dancers interpret the daily emotions of the homeless. Through their moving bodies – they gradually manage to reconcile with their situation and reclaim power over their fate.
Interstices
Typhen Rocchia B 2023, 9 minutes, b/w, no dialogue
Between industrial landscapes and natural forms, Interstices is a hypnotic journey through the bodies and gestures of a group of women – united by the awareness of their weaknesses and a constant search for freedom. With a mesmerizing soundtrack and image processes that seem to belong to the realm of magic, this Super8 and 16mm film presents dance as an act of resistance.
Capriceuse
Wolfgang Kolb B 1990, 22 minutes, colour, no dialogue
Roxane Huilmand rehearses and presents her show Capricieuse in Aix-en-Provence. "Leapfrogs, the movement of a finger, the position of the hand. The wrist, the rubbing of the feet, swaying the hips, shoulders turning. I try to film the immediacy and fragility in which dance is created". (Wolfgang Kolb)