Kris Verdonck
Kris Verdonck
° 1974 lives and works in Brussels
The training of Kris - visual arts, architecture and theatre - is reflected in the work he produces: we can situate his creations in the transit zone between the visual arts and theatre, between installation and performance, between dance and architecture.
As theatre maker and visual artist, he can already look back on a wide variety of projects. He directed theatre productions and produced various installations, a.o. 5 , (2003), Catching Whales Is Easy (2004), II (2005). Verdonck often presents combinations of different installations/performances as Variations. The first Stills , consisting of gigantic projections, were created in September 2006 and were commissioned by La Notte Bianca in Rome. In November 2007 he creates the theatrical installation I/II/III/IIII (2007). In May 2008 END premièred during the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. Variation IV, a combination of 7 installations was shown during the festival of Avignon 2008. In January 2010 Actor # 1 will première in its entirety in Kaaitheater in Brussels. Kris is also currently working on his new creation "K" (working title). The première is planned in July 2010 at Theater der Welt in Essen, followed by a tour in Brussels (Kaaitheater), Gent (Vooruit), Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg) and Bergen (Le manège.mons).
Projects
2010
The artist and theatre-maker Kris Verdonck quite often combines his fascination with machines with images and concepts that owe a lot to science fiction. This certainly applies to the three-part Actor #1.
The first part, called Mass, shows an odd, poetic landscape in which chemical and physical processes are taking place. A landscape of constantly...
2009
The body of a giant floats on the water, his face turned down. It moves slightly, but whether the movement is the result of his breathing or of the water rippling it's hard to tell. The image is ambiguous: dead as well as alive, both serene and billowed, blissful or perhaps dead drunk. Who is he? Who has dumped him here?
2009
DUMP is a video projection that talks about the overall malaise in the business world.
2009
The combustion engine, or its use, is one of the main guilty parties in the climate crisis. Kris Verdonck shows the engine in its naked reality and seeks out a confrontation between the ethical and the aesthetic.
2008
His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has...
2008
In END, the performance artist Kris Verdonck shows the possible final stages of a human society in ten scenes. Melting glaciers, burning forests, cities under water, ubiquitous screens and cameras spying on us, the uncontrolled availability of weapons of mass destruction, and so on.
END starts out from the images the media project onto our retinas...
2007
I/II/III/IIII is a new theatrical installation by the performance artist Kris Verdonck. Four ‘identical’ female dancers hang like marionettes in a huge ‘machine’. Together with them performance artist Kris Verdonck generated a passage of choreography: a solo, a duet, a trio and a pas de quatre. They sought the greatest possible freedom from the...
2006
The Stills consist of gigantic projections: naked, voluminous human figures, imprisoned in a space which is much too small for them. They sometimes move slightly, seeking the most comfortable position in which to bear their uncertain situation. Still I & II was commissioned in September 2006 by La Notte Bianca in Rome. The pictures were...
2005
Box is an installation: a glass cube contains the strongest possible light source that can be concentrated on such a small surface; the project was developed in collaboration with engineers of Philips Lightning (Turnhout). The spectators, equipped with protective, dark glasses, are led into the room. As they watch the light, they hear the voice of...
2005
A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine.To one on his back in the dark. This he can tell by the pressure on his hind parts and by how the dark changes when he shuts his eyes and again when he opens them again. Only a small part of what is said can be verified.Samuel Beckett, Company
We have to change our view to survive, just like we have to...
2005
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.Revelation 8:7
DESCRIPTION
A rain of fire. In a dark space little drops of fire fall from the ceiling into water. At first sight the drops look like fireflies...
2005
A performer positions herself like a fakir on a bed of long iron spikes placed at a distance of 4cm from each other. Microphones are placed where the body touches the spikes to register the sound of the suspended body, and also create a larger supporting surface.
Like a fakir the performer manages to obtain her position through a state of deep...
2005
1) Some different aspects of the installation HEART : A man and a woman are connected to each other with a rope, a steal cable, between them a 'winch', she stands in front of the audience, he on a ladder behind the curtains: when he jumps, she is pulled backwards 9m and 4m high and smashes against a wall. The man is invisible to the woman, but...
2004
In Heart a woman is hurled against a wall after every 500 beats of herheart by means of a cable attached to her body. Her heartbeats areaudible to the spectators. Because of the stress situation the woman isin, it is of course impossible for her to control her heartbeats: shecannot but surrender to the machine of her own heart, to theunpredictable...
2003
A grinding wheel with a big steel L hangs from the ceiling. When the disc starts to turn, the L twirls round uncontrolled. The motor races but still tries to find its equilibrium, still tries to function despite the strangeness of the situation. However the machine does not succeed. It starts to take on the appearance of a classical hero in...
2003
An actress remains motionless for an hour in a display window filled with water. The distortion to her senses caused by the environment she is in makes her go into a trance. The sounds of her breathing and movement are amplified by microphones.
• Past dates •
27.02.2009 - 01.03.2009
Kunstencentrum BUDA [Buda Fresh #6] • Kortrijk • Belgium
20.10.2008 - 22.10.2008
Tanzquartier Wien [It's our pleasure] • Vienna • Austria
23.09.2008 - 24.09.2008
Rotterdamse Schouwburg [De Internationale keuze van] • Rotterdam • Netherlands
15.08.2008 - 16.08.2008
Göteborg Dans & Teaterfestival • Göteborg • Sweden
07.02.2008
National Review of Live Art • Glasgow • United Kingdom
06.02.2008 - 08.02.2008
National Review of Live Art • Glasgow • United Kingdom