Ezra Veldhuis,
Ezra Veldhuis & Bosse Provoost,
Bosse Provoost,
B, E,
Portretwebsite 3
Bosse Provoost Oshin Albrecht
PD170914 3887

The Act of Dying (2017) was the con­clu­ding pie­ce of three pie­ces that per­for­ma­ti­ve­ly explo­red the phy­si­ca­li­ty of ani­ma­ted figu­res. It was also the first per­for­man­ce of artist col­lec­ti­ve de polen. In The Act of Dying, we see three figu­res reen­ac­ting their own bru­tal death over and over again. They are accom­pa­nied by a wooden rec­tan­g­le on strings and Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony (“Symphony of Sorrows”).

Whereas Herberg focu­sed on rhythm and clear, drawn” lines, and Moore Bacon! exhi­bits a body see­min­gly esca­ping the con­s­traints of its ana­to­my, The Act of Dying explo­res the extre­me vio­len­ce to which ani­ma­ted charac­ters expo­se them­sel­ves and each other (not infre­quent­ly with unbrid­led joie de vivre).

They don’t know death, they don’t know sexu­a­li­ty, they don’t know suf­fe­ring, you cut them into pie­ces, they’­re recon­sti­tu­ted. There is no fini­tu­de, no mor­ta­li­ty here. There is evil, but a kind of nai­ve, good evil. You’re just ego­tis­tic, you want to eat, you want to hit the other, but the­re is no guilt proper.’

—Slavoj Žižek in A Pervert's Guide to Cinema
  • 24.11.17
    Jonge Harten Festival, Groningen (NL)
  • 14—15.09.17
    Love At First Sight Festival, Antwerpen (BE)
  • 09—10.08.17
    Boulevard Festival, Den Bosch (NL)
  • 31.07—01.08.17
    Theater Aan Zee, Oostende (BE)
  • 13.04.17
    De Werf (KAAP), Brugge (BE)
  • 30—31.03.17
    Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Gent (BE) (première)
Performance & creation
Geert Belpaeme, Kobe Chielens, Lieselotte De Keyzer
Directing
Bosse Provoost
Scenography
Sibran Sampers, Ezra Veldhuis
Technique
Britt Dejonghe
Dramaturgical advice
Mats Van Herreweghe
Production
de polen
Co-production
Kunstencentrum BUDA, wpZimmer, Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Toneelhuis
With support of
KAAP, Theater Aan Zee, the Flemish Authorities, LOD Muziektheater
PD170914 3827 min © Pieter Dumoulin
PD170914 3896 min © Pieter Dumoulin
PD170914 4133 min © Pieter Dumoulin
PD170914 3635 min © Pieter Dumoulin
PD170915 4337 min © Pieter Dumoulin
35 A 0178 © Stine Sampers
Geert kobe armen the act of dying © Stine Sampers