A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than

A painting in a museum hears more
ridiculous opinions than anything else in
the world.
© Christophe Ketels / Compagnie Gagarine
Edmond de Goncourt (1822 - 1896)
CHAPTER 1
Arts
Arts
Art News
Denkmal 11, Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, 2008. Module CDLV
In his first solo exhibition in the United States, contemporary
Belgian visual artist Jan De Cock (b. 1976) showcased his
work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from
January to April 2008. The exhibition, Denkmal 11, Museum
of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, 2008, consisted
of a floor-to-ceiling photographic and plywood sculptural
installation in response to the MoMA’s collection itself as well
as images taken from the history of art, architecture and film.
Denkmal translates as both “monument” in German and
as a “mold of thinking” in Flemish. Through the mediums of
photography and sculptural installation and in his signature
encyclopaedic style, De Cock provides provocative ideas
about the history and nature of modern art, architecture and
what constitutes landmark monuments. This exhibition echoed
De Cock’s work at London’s Tate Modern, where he created
a series of installations and sculptures out of plywood which
mimicked functional gallery furniture and prompted viewers
to look at the building and its history in a new way. De Cock’s
myriad photographs in this exhibition of famous modern
images by artists such as Brancusi, Newman, Hopper and
Judd are juxtaposed with film and architecture shots as well
as his plywood installations. The use of repetitive framing
devices, extreme close-ups and miniatures all work to stretch
the viewer’s imagination and perspective on how they view art.
Photos © Atelier Jan De Cock Courtesy Galerie Fons Welters and Galerie Luis Campaña
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Denkmal 11, Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, 2008.
Module CCCXX, Module CCCXXI [Diptych 23]
phenomenon of Disney. Subjects of previous
exhibitions have ranged from major historical
events such as the Holocaust or the politics
of the Belgian Congo to the inconsequential
and the banal, such as wallpaper patterns,
Christmas decorations and everyday objects.
In “Forever”, Tuymans suggests, by means
of eight new paintings and eight drawings,
a grim reality behind the Disney fantasies
of “social utopia”. With characteristic
intensity, he explores the transformation of
entertainment into ideology, and hints at the
implicit dangers in a reality based on the
production of magic.
Artist: Tuymans Luc. “Der Diagnostische Blick IV”, 1992 photographer: © Felix Tirry
Belgian conceptual artist Luc Tuymans
(b.1958) is one of the most significant and
influential painters working today. At a
time when many artists believe painting
has lost its relevance in the context
of the information age, Tuymans has
brought new life to the medium. He also
makes extensive use of techniques from
photography and film such as cropping,
close-ups, framing and sequencing.
In his latest exhibition, “Forever, The
Management of Magic” (2008) at the David
Swirner gallery in New York, Tuymans turns
his gaze on the global but distinctly American
je me souviens (vue loin) © Thierry Renauld
l'envol, 2005 © Thierry Renauld
A large retrospective exhibition of the
work of world-renowned Belgian artist,
sculptor and illustrator Jean-Michel Folon
takes place from April to September 2008
in a variety of locations across Belgium.
Organised by the Folon Foundation in
conjunction with the Office de promotion
du Tourisme Wallonie-Bruxelles, the
exhibition invites Belgian and foreign
tourists to (re)discover the extraordinary
work of Folon in different locations
from Knokke to Marche-en-Famenne.
Exhibition highlights include the collection
of more than 500 artworks over 40 years
at the farm of the Castle of La Hulpe,
the home of the Folon Foundation
situated in scenic Solvay Park. Some of
Folon’s best known works include his
forlorn but endearing urban Everymen
figures as well as his soaring birdmen.
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‘Le Parlement de Musique’; photographer Alexander Ponet
VOX LUMINIS
Economy and Industry
The 2008 Festival de Wallonie
focuses on nature through the
theme “Songs of the Earth”.
Drawing on the inspiration of the
seasons, water and fauna and
flora, this theme explore the music
of nature in its many forms: a
waterfall, a thunderstorm, a river or
a whistling bird. Composer Benoît
Mernier and world-traveller Alain
Hubert are guests of honour at this
year’s festival. In a programme of
stories and music, they show the
harmony between nature and music.
One of Europe’s major classical music
festivals, the Flanders Festival brings 350
concerts to the area over the course of
several months. Key towns participating
in the Festival include Brussels, Bruges,
Antwerp, Ghent and Flemish Louvain, each
with their separate line-ups. Antwerp’s
festival focuses on Historically Informed
Performance, recreating medieval or
renaissance music as it might have sounded
hundreds of years ago. Each year Laus
Polyphoniae, an early music event that takes
place annually during the last weeks of
August, focuses on a certain repertoire or a
certain composer. In 2008 Laus Polyphoniae
will focus on the musical repertoire of the
Hanseatic League.
The Basilica Festival guarantees its
audience concerts and music theatre of
high quality. Highlights in 2008 include
performances by the prize-winners of
the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the
International Frans Liszt Piano Competition
in Utrecht and the International Quatuor
Competition of Bordeaux.
Flanders Opera’s 2008-2009 season is
both a farewell and a new beginning. Marc
Clémeur steps down as general director
at the end of 2008 after 18 years and will
be succeeded by the young Swiss Aviel
Cahn. Last year Flanders Opera finished
a remarkable cycle of Wagners Der Ring
des Nibelungen. Clémeur will be saying
farewell with a performance of Verdi’s
final masterpiece Falstaff. The two other
productions under his directorship scheduled
for the autumn are Puccini’s Turandot and
Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.
Aviel Cahn takes charge from the
beginning of 2009 with four operas around
the theme of “Utopia” — Tchaikovsky’s
Mazeppa, Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Camille
Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila and the
contemporary opera Aquarius by the Flemish
composer Karel Goeyvaerts. Samson et
Dalila will be a highpoint of the season,
bringing together the young Palestinian
Amir Nizar Zuabi and the experienced
Israeli Omri Nitzan in a “topical insight into
the mechanics of religiously and politically
motivated fanaticism”.
Flanders Opera performs in two historical
buildings in Ghent and Antwerp.
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© Bruno Vessié
The Royal Ballet of Flanders stands
alone today as the sole classical ballet
company in Belgium. Founded thirtynine years ago by the visionary Jeanne
Brabants, the company started as an
off-shoot of the Opera, but rapidly
achieved international recognition.
Now the Royal Ballet of Flanders is
ready to start a fourth season under the
inspiring artistic direction of Kathryn
Bennetts. She has broken new ground,
seeking to bridge the gap between
tradition and experiment. The innovative
developments have to do with people, with
an exchange between choreographers
and an artistic director with a vision.
In the short period Bennetts has been
director, the repertoire, has proved rich
and varied and bears witness to a distinct
signature: sparkling and bright, the
dance performances particularly refined.
The season 2007-2008 has brought a
completely new repertoire including such
renowned choreographers as William
Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, George Balanchine,
Marcia Haydee and Christian Spuck. With
this season alone including four world
premieres by Jorma Elo, Matteo Moles,
Cayetano Soto and Michael Corder,
creativity remains at the forefront.
Although the season began on a
very exciting note with performances of
„Impressing the Czar“ at the Edinburgh
Festival, the undoubted highlight
of the touring schedule this season
was the performances at the Lincoln
Center Festival in New York in July.
In today’s varied dancescape
the Royal Ballet of Flanders more
strongly than ever claims its place.
© SABAM-ADAGP, Bruxelles-Paris 2008
© Jacques Croisier
Aki Saito, Wim Vanlessen & ensemble ©Angela Sterling
Highlights of the 2007-2008 season of the Liege-based Opera Royal de Wallonie
include Verdi favourites Nabucco and Don Carlo, Puccini’s Tosca, La Vie Parisienne
by Offenbach and Savary, and Edouard Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys. Visiting artists include
conductors Paolo Arrivabeni and Giovanni Antonini, directors Yoisha Oida and Giardino
Armonico, and singers Yonghoon Lee, Mark Rucker and Susan Neves.
Hungarian tenor Szabolcs Brickner won
the Grand Prize in the 2008 International
Queen Elisabeth singing competition, which
took place in Brussels at the end of May.
Brickner, who studies with the legendary
operatic tenor Nicolai Gedda, has appeared
at the Budapest Opera House in Die
Zauberflöte and L’Elisir d’Amore. Mezzosopranos Isabelle Druet from France and
Bernadetta Grabias from Poland were the
runners-up.
A new museum dedicated to Belgian
surrealist master René Magritte is to open in
Brussels in June 2009. The museum on the
Place Royale will feature some 170 works
by Magritte, making it the world’s biggest
and most diverse collection of its kind.
Among his most famous pictures are
The Son of Man, depicting a bowlerhatted figure with an apple floating
before his face, and Ceci n’est pas
une pipe (This is not a pipe), which
depicts a pipe. French group Suez is
contributing `4 million to the project.
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Best of Belgium
Grand-Hornu is an old industrial mining
complex - a remarkable reminder of the
Industrial Revolution. Built between 1810
and 1830 by Henri De Gorge, a captain
of industry of French origin, it is a real
urban project, an example of functional
town-planning unique on the European
continent at the start of the great era of
industrialisation.
Built in the Neo-classical style, GrandHornu consists of workshops, offices, a
workers’ estate and the administrators’
residence, known as “De Gorge Castle”.
With their arcades, pediments and halfmoon windows, the colliery workshops and
offices form a majestic whole.
The estate was later provided with a
school, a library, public baths, a dance hall
and a hospital. Grand-Hornu is a complex
which is both exceptional and representative
of an era - a grandiose project, yet not
excessive in any way, where we find balance
and harmony between the stylistic and
functional aspects of the architecture.
Grand-Hornu, which is now the property
of the Province of Hainaut, is developing
a contemporary project allying culture,
tourism, technology and futurology.
The International Film Festival Ghent
celebrates its 35th anniversary in October
2008 with screenings of more than 200 films
and shorts and free live performances of top
film scores by the Brussels Philharmonic
orchestra. The concerts will feature crowdpleasing tunes by top film score composers
such as John Williams (Harry Potter,
Indiana Jones), Craig Armstrong (World
Trade Centre, Love Actually), John Powell
(Ice Age, Mr and Mrs Smith) and Nicola
Piovani (La Vita e bella). The festival also
marks the occasion of the 8th annual World
Soundtrack Awards. Guests of honour at this
year’s ceremony are Angelo Badalamenti,
best known for his soundtrack work with
American film director David Lynch, and
Dario Marianelli, who won an Oscar for
his soundtrack to Atonement in 2007.
Opening Kunstenfestivaldesarts08
© Danny Willems
IMPORT EXPORT – Koen Augustijnen © Chris Van der Burght
Popular, anarchic, eclectic, committed. These are some of the adjectives to describe Les
Ballets C de la B, an internationally successful Belgian dance company with a reputation for
bold and vigorous physical theatre delivered through an eclectic mix of styles and media. Using
a variety of choreographers, Les Ballets also develops promising young performing artists
from different backgrounds. Their latest production is Patchagonia, Argentinian choreographer
Lisi Estaràs’s debut work for the company, which explores themes of loneliness, violence and
emotion in the desolate landscape of Patagonia. The bold and haunting performances of the
four dancers and three on-stage musicians suggest that Estaràs is a choreographer to watch
for the future.
© Grand Hornu Images
Arts
Rosas, the dance ensemble and production
company founded by choreographer Anne
Teresa De Keersmaeker, premiered its
new creation Zeitung at the Théâtre de la
Ville in Paris in January 2008 to glowing
reviews. Exploring the intersection of
music and dance, the Rosas dancers
combine the simple building blocks of
choreography with a considerable amount
of improvisation. Pianist Alain Franco
takes as his medium the harmonious
confrontation between Bach, Schoenberg
and Webern. De Keersmaeker says that in
Zeitung the “harmony between music and
dance does not develop from similarity or
parallelism but momentarily, where the two
intersect. ... Dance and music depart from
different stations and it is the run-up to the
intersection that stimulates the conditions of
harmony”.
One of Europe’s great festivals, the annual
Brussels-based Kunstenfestivaldesarts
offers contemporary works of art by a range
of artists in 20 diverse venues around the
city. Kunstenfestivaldesarts 08 provides a
platform for international performing artists
from Europe, India, Japan, Singapore,
Australia and New Zealand while also
supporting and presenting new works
by a young generation of Belgians to an
international audience. One innovative show,
Call Cutta in a box, by the German collective
Rimini Protokoll, provides spectators
with the opportunity to experience a live
telephone conversation with a call-centre
employee in Kolkata, who is paid to provide
theatre for a European audience.
Through bringing diverse viewpoints in
original languages onto a cosmopolitan
stage, the festival values differences,
both global and local, and seeks to unite
communities through the arts.
© Dragone 2007
© Capilla Flamenca
Franco Dragone, the Belgian creative
mastermind behind Cirque du Soleil, has
directed a number of spectacular shows since
he left Cirque du Soleil in 2000 to start his
own production company (Dragone). Two of
the biggest productions in the history of Las
Vegas, Celine Dion’s concert extravaganza “A
New Life” at Caesar’s Palace and the dazzling
aquatic production Le Rêve at Wynn Las
Vegas continue to be very successful. Since
2007 Dragone has also directed musicaltheatre with “Carmen: A New Musical” at the
La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. This show
breathes new life into Prosper Mérimée’s
brutal tale of sensuality, passion and
obsession, infusing it with dazzling imagery,
original music and dance.
Capilla Flamenca are a group of Belgian
singers with a gift for discovering and bringing
to life rarely-heard choral repertoire and
placing it within an interesting context. Their
recent CD Desir d’aymer is a harmonious
celebration of the amorous senses. Included
in the collection are several songs from
Ottaviano Petrucci’s Harmonice Musices
Odhecaton (1501), which brings together in
printed form polyphonic music mainly from
the Low Countries.
From Inside © Thierry De Mey
Charleroi / Danses, a leading Belgian
association of artists focusing on
contemporary dance, is an off-shoot of the
former Ballet Royal de Wallonie. Their 20082009 season begins with Metamorphoses,
directed by Belgian choreographer Frédéric
Flamand with costumes by the Brazilian
brothers Humberto & Fernando Campana.
Inspired by Ovid’s classical mythological
poem, Flamand’s work progresses through
nine scenes, each one showing nature,
man and the gods in a state of flux. The
production depicts the excitement and
terror of transformations with the help of the
Campanas’ imaginatively recycled materials.
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Arts
The Ghent International Film Festival –
Where Music Sets the Tone
Danny Glover (2007)
The Ghent Film Festival (Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent)
was established in 1974 as a students’ film festival, and has since
developed into one of Europe’s most prominent film events.
Every year in October, the festival presents
some 120 features and 50 shorts from all
across the world. A range of different film
programs are showcased, attracting over
100,000 viewers each year. The International
Federation of Film Producers Associations
(IFFPA) recognises this festival as a
competitive festival primarily geared towards
the ‘impact of music on film’. There are 4
awards up for grabs and around 15 entrants.
With its focus on film music, the Ghent
Film Festival has its own unique place
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in international festivals. Every year, the
festival organises film music concerts,
giving composers of film scores the platform
they deserve. Composers such as Ennio
Morricone, Gabriel Yared, Elmer Bernstein,
Michael Kamen, Patrick Doyle, Howard
Shore, Georges Delerue, Hans Zimmer,
Maurice Jarre, Craig Armstrong, HarryGregson Williams, Mychael Danna, Gustavo
Santaolalla are some of the many film music
legends who have already taken the stage at
Ghent. Since 2001, the Ghent Film Festival
has also organised the World Soundtrack
Awards, the most prestigious soundtrack
awards in the world. Each year, the best
soundtrack composers are honoured and
receive international recognition for their
work. This pioneering role has certainly had
an impact. Ghent has grown into a meeting
point for established and up-and-coming
musical talent and ever greater numbers
of festivals play soundtracks from the
wings. Since 2004, even the European Film
Academy – encouraged by the Ghent Film
Director David Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen (2005)
Actress Kathleen Turner, director Walter Hill and festival director Jacques Dubrulle (2007)
Lord Richard Attenborough (2007)
Festival - has honoured the best European
soundtrack composers. Trade paper Variety
placed the festival in its top 50 must attend
festivals of the world because of this focus
on (film)music. American financial newspaper
The Wall Street Journal called the festival
one of the five European Film Festivals with
character and Hollywood Reporter described
the festival as one of the most intriguing
stops on the international fest circuit.
Yet there is more to the Ghent Film
Festival than just soundtracks alone. Every
year, numerous international guests from the
world of film flock to Ghent to present their
films to the general public. Over the past
years, the festival has welcomed filmmakers
such as Kathleen Turner, Viggo Mortensen,
David Cronenberg, Mike Leigh, François
Ozon, Jeanne Moreau, Gina Lollobrigida, Tom
Tykwer, Lord Richard Attenborough, Todd
Haynes, Sir Peter Ustinov, Walter Hill, Danny
Glover, Sidney Pollack, Jane Birkin, Luc
Besson, Mike Figgis, Morgan Freeman, Fatih
Akin, Andy Garcia, Melanie Griffith, Robert
Altman, Juliette Binoche, Sandra Bullock,
Brad Pitt, Ken Loach and Michael Haneke.
In addition to the screenings, the Ghent
Film Festival also organises film-related
exhibitions. Thus the prestigious Stanley
Kubrick exhibition, which was previously
shown in Berlin, Melbourne and Frankfurtam-Main, was brought to Ghent before other
world cities such as Rome, Paris and London.
Film fanatics have also been able to see
exhibitions of film maker Peter Greenaway,
animation film maker Raoul Servais, and the
large exhibition Cités-Cinés with over 450,000
visitors. The Ghent Film Festival will continue
to keep a close watch on international film
developments in order to organise a festival
that is as captivating as possible. To this end,
a fresh, young team works hard day after day.
The 35th edition of the Ghent Film Festival
is scheduled for October 7th-18th, 2008.
Once again “The impact of music on film” is
the overall theme. More than 150 films will
be shown at Kinepolis Ghent, Sphinx, Studio
Skoop and Arts Centre Vooruit.
Ghent Film Festival (Flanders
International Film Festival-Ghent),
Leeuwstraat 40b, B-9000 Ghent
Tel: +32 (0)9 242 80 60
Fax: + 32(0)9 221 90 74
[email protected]
www.filmfestival.be
www.worldsoundtrackacademy.com
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Arts
The Queen Elisabeth International
Music Competition of Belgium
© Bruno Vessié
In memory of the renowned Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe,
Queen Elisabeth worked on fulfilling the wish they had shared:
to bring together in Brussels the finest young musicians, at an
event celebrating their art in a spirit of friendship.
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Winner Queen Elisabeth wedstrijd Szabolcs BRICKNER © Laurent Friob
© Bruno Vessié
Up to the end of the 60s, candidates came
mainly from Europe and the United States.
Since then, young musicians from Asia and
Australia - increasingly open to Western
European culture and mastering to the highest
degree its repertoire and styles of music
- have also travelled to the heart of Europe,
recognising the substantial assistance and
prestige which the Competition can provide.
The piano, singing, violin and composition
competitions attract the premier soloists,
chamber musicians and teachers of tomorrow,
all contributing to the lasting heritage of
Europe’s musical history since the 17th
century.
The Competition owes its reputation
primarily to the quality of its jury-members and
prizewinners. The presence of so many men
and women musicians from all over the world
in Brussels each spring contributes to the
international flavour of Brussels life.
Queen Elisabeth was convinced of the
benefits to society which the Arts and the
bringing together of different peoples can
provide. 50 years later, her message to
respect and listen to each other seems as
relevant as ever.
Secretariat of the Queen
Elisabeth Competition
20, rue aux Laines
B-1000 Brussels
Tel : +32 2 213 40 50
Fax : +32 2 514 32 97
[email protected]
Best of Belgium
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Arts
Rosas
Rosas is the contemporary dance company founded
and lead by the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker.
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© Herman Sorgeloos
© Tina Ruisinger
© Herman Sorgeloos
A fine selection of international reputable
dancers contributes to the steady growth
of the company’s multifaceted oeuvre. The
company is based in Brussels and tours its
productions worldwide.
After studying dance in Brussels and
New York, choreographer Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker founded her company
Rosas in Brussels in 1983. Anne Teresa De
Keersmaeker’s first choreography for the
brand-new company was Rosas danst Rosas
- a piece that the company borrowed its name
from, and that brought it an instantaneous
international breakthrough. De Keersmaeker
soon established herself as one of Europe’s
most exciting and innovating choreographers.
With Rosas she would give Belgium a
prominent place in the dance landscape.
In 1992 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker was
invited as resident choreographer at De Munt,
the Brussels opera house: a cooperation that
was carried on until 2007. Rosas and De Munt
jointly set up the international educational
project PARTS, the Performing Arts Research
and Training Studios, directed by Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker. Today the dance school,
which offers a four-year curriculum, houses
talented students from all over the world.
From the very start De Keersmaeker set the
tone of Rosas’ work with her characteristic
dance vocabulary and tightly structured
choreographies. Her movements often
highlight singular parts of a dancer’s body
- head, hip, foot, hand - and show the beauty
and significance of small human gestures. De
Keersmaeker applies rigorous patterns and
structures in her choreographies, creating
fascinating rhythms.
Fairly soon De Keersmaeker left the
confines of pure dance and ventured into the
realms of text theatre and live music, creating
at times complex but highly enjoyable
performances that blend the different
disciplines. A sense of nonchalance and
playfulness has given more buoyancy to her
precise style.
De Keersmaeker is fond of selecting such
great composers as Bartók, Bach, Mozart
and Ligeti for her work, but she has also
cooperated with experimental composers like
Thierry De Mey (B), Peter Vermeersch (B), or
with the ethno-jazz quartet of Aka Moon (B).
She has a special preference for American
composer Steve Reich, whose music she has
used in several pieces.
The most recent Rosas creations include
D’un soir un jour (2006), Steve Reich Evening
(2007), Keeping Still (2007) and Zeitung
(2008). Source: www.vti.be
Van Volxemlaan 164,
1190 Brussels
Phone: +32 2 344 55 98
Fax: +32 2 343 53 52
[email protected]
www.rosas.be
www.parts.be
Rosas is supported by the
Flemish authorities.
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Arts
Muziektheater Transparant
Opera for a new generation
Villa Vivaldi © Herman Sorgeloos
Muziektheater Transparant is a production
company which takes a wide-open look at
opera and musical theatre. With a mix of old
and new, of conventional and extra-ordinary,
it shifts the boundaries of the genres and
places the voice firmly at the centre of the
projects. Because of the flexible production
methods, the variety of shows and the artistic
diversity of the artists in residence, general
director Guy Coolen has made of Transparant
a unique organisation with a solid national and
international character.
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“Transparant guarantees the future of the
opera.” (Gerard Mortier)
With a most open approach towards the
possiblities of musical theatre, Transparant
aspires to create opera for a new generation.
The main aim is to bring together distinct
genres, disciplines and ideas. Classical
operas must be staged in a way relevant in
today’s world, new operas should take the
genre forward. Transparant pays particular
attention to offering contemporary musicians
the chance to develop and try new work. It
has produced operas by Wim Henderickx,
and worked with composers like Jan Van
Outryve and Eric Sleichim. A more theatrical
approach is added with directors Caroline
Petrick, Wouter Van Looy and Josse De Pauw.
Annelies Van Parys and Joachim Brackx,
two most promising Flemish composers, are
invited for a three-year residence to put their
first steps in music theatre.
The importance of being international
The productions of Transparant are touring
RUHE © Herman Sorgeloos
Die Entführung aus dem Paradies © Herman Sorgeloos
Wolpe! © Herman Sorgeloos
all over the world, from the Flemish cultural
centres to big international festivals including
Salzburger Festspiele, Avignon Festival,
Holland Festival, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, and
Edinburgh International Festival.
Transparant has also played an integral
part in the music programming at European
Cities of Culture in Bruges, Salamanca and
Lille. In Stavanger 2008, Transparant was
the music theatre company in residence
during February, and engaged in a profound
collaboration with the local artists. An
A girl a boy a river © Koen Broos
(after) The Fairy Queen © Freija Van Esbroeck
invitation for Linz 2009 signed up already.
In February 2008 Muziektheater
Transparant spent a whole month in
Norway, in Stavanger European Cultural
Capital of 2008. Intendant Mary Miller
about the Transparant: ‘A lot of artists
and ensembles are coming to Stavanger
to perform and show what they can do.
Then they leave us. However, this is not the
case with the Flemish group from Antwerp.
They run Muziektheater Transparant and
have plotted Stavanger on their cultural
map.’ (in Stavanger Aftenblad, 03.10.07)
Unique in this international regard, is the
Institute for Living Voice project, a peripatetic
workshop at which singers and musicians
from all musical traditions come together
to hold workshops and give recitals.
Students meet master singers,
traditional ethnic songs meet vocal
experiments. Between it’s founding in
2000 by Transparant and David Moss,
the Institute welcomed between others
Barbara Bonney, Christina Branco, Omar
Ebrahim, Nona Henderickx, Phil Minton,
Meredith Monk, and Sainko Namtchylak.
composers, Eric Sleichim, Annelies van
Parys and Jan Van Outryve, have composed
contemporary music for these films.
Other than this the focus will be on
early 20th-century music: Claire Chevallier,
Benoît van Innis and Josse De Pauw will
appear on stage with Poulenc’s Babar and
Satie’s Le Fils des Etoiles. Caroline Petrick
will work on the Harawi songs by Olivier
Messiaen and there will be a revival of Wolpe!
- a musical-theatre production she made
together with Viviane De Muynck, Johan
Bossers and Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson.
Early musical work will be performed
in Wouter Van Looy’s new production
(after) The Fairy Queen (Purcell), in which
the top conductor Emmanuelle Haïm
and her baroque ensemble, Le Concert
d’Astrée, will participate. More baroque
musique can be heard in the revivals
of Waar is mijn ziel? (Monteverdi) with
the B’rock baroque ensemble and in
RUHE (Schubert) with Collegium Vocale
Gent directed by Josse De Pauw.
About 45 young singers and musicians
from Flanders and Friesland will be working
on Rameau’s Platée for the annual youth
opera workshop. All this young talent will be
coached by the director Ruud Gielens and the
musical supervisors Jan Van Outryve, Thomas
Baeté, Ayala Sircon and Marcin Lasia.
For the full programme and venues nearby,
read more at www.transparant.be.
On the play list in 08-09
Muziektheater Transparant gave a
composition assignment to the young
composer Joachim Brackx. Die Entführung
aus dem Paradies will be his first big musicaltheatre production with the première in
the Flemish Opera in Antwerp (June 09).
In it he works together with the writer
and librettist Oscar van den Boogaard.
Joachim Brackx is also involved in Pour vos
Beaux Yeux, a project based on a series
of restored silent movies from the 1920s
and 30s by the Belgian film directors Henri
Storck and Charles Dekeukeleire. Apart
from Joachim Brackx, the other house
Muziektheater Transparant vzw
Leopoldplaats 10 bus 1
B-2000 Antwerpen
Tel: + 32 (0)3 225 17 02
(ma-vr.: tussen 10-18u)
Fax: + 32 (0)3 22616 52
Email: [email protected]
www.transparant.be
Best of Belgium
35