Kaaitheater presents: the 2018-2019 season

TO AUTHENTICITY ... AND BEYOND!

There has been a striking increase in the use of the word ‘authenticity’ over the past few years: in newspapers and other media, in various forms of discourse, and especially also in discussions of art and artists. The idea being that whatever is authentic is a cut above the rest: original, pure, real. But what do we think to find in this urge for the ‘real’ or the ‘original’? When does the desire for authenticity become collective nostalgia, conservatism, or fundamentalism? And is this desire not an enormous paradox anyway in a digital age when we simply click and swipe from one artificial, simulated reality to the next?

In the growing critique of Western, modern thought, an increasing number of voices are calling for a revision of historical and philosophical constructions. They invite us to ‘un-learn’ patterns of thought and narratives and to be receptive to whatever this exercise produces. This process, too, reveals a desire for ‘realness’, in an age in which reality often no longer feels real or sincere. Throughout the season, we are bringing artists and intellectuals together to focus on this desire. Where might the search for truth and origins take us, if we are prepared to look beyond authenticity?
→ read the full introduction to To Authenticity... and Beyond!

To Authenticity ... and Beyond! runs as a thread throughout the 2018-2019 Kaaitheater programme. It is a series of performances, 7PM talks preceding performances, encounters with thinkers (Afua Hirsch, Dider Eribon, Nina Power, Thijs Lijster a.o.), a symposium rethinking the documentary in art and an alternative election show initiated by The Political Party. Two focus programmes take specific perspectives: To be or not to be me looks at the border between sincerity and ‘mendacity’ onstage, whereas The Sublime zooms in on the concept of the sublime today.

CITY:LAND

In CITY:LAND, a brand new Kaaitheater festival, we're leaving our theatre halls and taking to the streets. The focus is on the city itself, as a shared space in a divided world. How can we live together on the basis of cultural difference? And how do we combine an urban existence with a sustainable relationship with our natural environment?

This first edition is based on and around the Place de la Monnaie during the week leading up to the local elections. Each edition will also focus on one of our artists-in-residence. This year, Michiel Vandevelde is presenting his Precarious Pavilions #2.

The CITY:LAND programme further includes works by Anne Collod, Ant Hampton, Architecture Workroom Brussels, Kevin Trappeniers, Roland Gunst & Sibo Kanobana, Sarah van Lamsweerde and Sarah Vanagt.

PERFORMATIK19

Performatik – the Brussels biennale of performance art  –  turns the spotlight on contemporary performance art or live art and enters the intriguing twilight zone where artists tinker with the codes of visual arts and the performing arts. For this sixth edition, Kaaitheater again collaborates with many Brussels partners from both the visual and the performaing arts worlds: Kanal - Centre Pompidou, Argos, Beursschouwburg, BOZAR and WIELS, a.o.

→ Discover the first names for Performatik19 here.

Premières and Belgian premières

In 2018-2019 Kaaitheater presents 19 Belgian and 6 world premières, by Thomas Bellinck, Laila Soliman, Lotte van den Berg, Philippe Quesne, Boyzie Cekwana, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Pepe 'Elmas' Naswa, Eleanor Bauer, Ligia Lewis, Bruno Latour & Frédérique Aït-Touati, Ictus, Jeannot Kumbonyeki, Rochdi Belgasmi, Jan Decorte, Els Dietvorst, Pichet Klunchun & Chen Wu-Kang, Michiel Vandevelde, Maatschappij Discordia, Mette Edvardsen & Matteo Fargion, deufert&plischke, Schwalbe, Alix Eynaudi, Needcompany, Noé Soulier a.o.
You can find an overview of our dance, theatre, performance, music theatre and debate programmes on kaaitheater.be

Kaaitheater artists-in-residence (2017-2021)

Since 2017, the Kaaitheater programme has featured work by our second group of artists-in-residence:  Kate McIntosh, Christophe Meierhans, Radouan Mriziga, Vera Tussing, Michiel Vandevelde en Benjamin Vandewalle. All six of them have an exceptional urge for experimentation and curious attitude. Thanks to the diversity of their artistic practice, they bring together many of the concerns and questions of artists today. Above all, each of their incisive views of the world forces you into an active role. Next season, you can see several of them at work: Kate McIntosh presents Dark Matter, In Many Hands and Worktable, Radouan Mriziga creates 0.Kanal, Michiel Vandevelde creates Lamahk en Precarious Pavilion #2 and Benjamin Vandewalle stages Common Ground en In the Sky I'm Walking.

Kaaitheater partnerships

In 2017-2018, the Kaaitheater continues its collaboration with Globe Aroma, a socio-artistic workplace that creates opportunities for artists/newcomers in Brussels. During Performatik19 we collaborate to present Passage, a project by Globe Aroma and Jozef Wouters set in Decoratelier in Molenbeek.

The Kaaitheater also continues its partnership with Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre. During the annual festival MOUSSEM CITIES we collaborate to stage work by young generations of performing artists, coming from a different Arabic metropolis. MOUSSEM CITIES 2019 gives the floor to the exigent voices of artists from Damascus, Syria and the Syrian diaspora.

The new season also sees the start of a new collaboration, Connexion BXL, highlighting the connections between Europe and the Global South, and the role that Brussels might be playing. With a variety of partners in Brussels (Kaaitheater, Beursschouwburg, KVS a.o.)  Connexion Bxl aims to develop sustainable partnerships that strengthen Brussels as an open and creative freehaven. Connexion BXL 2018 stages creations by young talent as well as established artists. 

The Kaaitheater continues its role in the European network Imagine 2020 (2.0). The network – of which Kaaitheater is project leader – brings together ten performing arts organisations from nine European countries to consider the issue of climate change. Together, we believe in the power of artistic imagination to come up with new and different future scenarios. Imagine 2020 (2.0) is recognized by the European Commission for a period of four years (2015–2019).

The young K-audience

The K-team is a team of young people who love theatre and dance. For a whole year, they are being given carte blanche at the Kaaitheater and help to fire enthusiasm of other young people for contemporary performing arts. On instagram/_official_k_team you can follow them and find out which shows they declare 100% K-team proof. Kaaitheater offers the 'young' ticket price of €10 per show to all those under 26.

Kaaitheater also continues its successfull Matinee Kadee. On four Sunday afternoons we organise creative workshops for children (4 to 12 years old). The little ones (up to 4 years old) have fun in the playroom, while their parents can enjoy the performance with their minds at rest. An afternoon at Kaai for the whole family!

Next season, we present 2 kids-proof performances: in Kate McIntosh' Worktable for kids (5+) children can explore an exciting installation in which they can let their creativity run free. In Ant Hampton's Crazy But True, children between the ages of eight and eleven form a panel of experts.