VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival - Before Your Very Eyes

Before Your Very Eyes

Gob Squad & Campo

21/10/2011 , 21:00
22/10/2011 , 18:00

Concept, design, direction Gob Squad (Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost & Simon Will)
Performers Martha Balthazar, Maurice Belpaire, Spencer Bogaert, Zoë
Breda, Faustijn De Ruyck, Ramses De Ruyck, Fons Dhossche, Tasja Doom, Gust Hamerlinck, Robbe Langeraert, Zoë Luca, Jeanne Vandekerckhove, Aiko Vanparys & Ineke Verhaegen
Voice over Rigley Riley
Performance coach Pascale Petralia
Sound design Sebastian Bark, Jeff McGrory & Gob Squad
Costumes An Breughelmans & Gob Squad
Techenical Korneel Coessens & Bart Huybrechts
Set construction Atento
Camera Philippe Digneffe, Pol Heyvaert & Gob Squad
Video post-production Miles Chalcraft, Korneel Coessens, Sarah Michelle Harrison, Anna Zett & Gob Squad
Production assistance Stephanie Dewachter & Hilde Tuinstra
Childcare Merel Van Den Steen
Tour managment Leen De Broe & Mat Hand
Artistic co-ordination Nele De Sloover
Production managment Wim Clapdorp & Christina Runge
Admnistrators Carl Gydé & Eva Hartmann

Produced by Campo, Ghent (BE) and Gob Squad (DE)
Co-produced by Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; FFT Düsseldorf; Noorderzon/Grand Theatre Groningen; NEXT Festival, Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai + Valenciennes and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt; Festival de la Bâtie, Genève (CH)

Running time 1h 10'

National Première

Played in Flemish and English with Italian subtitles

A few years ago CAMPO (which was still called Victoria back then) planned to make a trilogy of plays or performances for which theatre-makers who had never previously worked with children would be invited to create something in which only children would appear. Important to know is that the aim was not to create children’s theatre - the plays were intended for an adult audience. The first piece in this trilogy was Josse De Pauw’s üBUNG, which opened at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in May 2001 and over the next few years toured the world. For the second production in this trilogy CAMPO approached Tim
Etchells, the artistic head of the renowned experimental theatre group Forced Entertainment. The result was a successful play called That Night Follows Day, which categorizes the systems of parenthood, upbringing, discipline, care and welfare with a huge dose of lucidity and humor.

CAMPO wouldn’t be CAMPO if the final chapter of the trilogy was not just a tiny bit different. Instead of inviting an individual artist, CAMPO popped the question in early 2008 to a collective: Gob Squad. This British-German performance group tries to give meaning to everyday life by using the newest technologies in video and sound in a very original way. By asking them this question Gob Squad was at the same time asked to find themselves in an unknown and perhaps dangerous territory. Gob Squad decided for the very first time in their history not to be on stage themselves but to give the children a carte blanche. They chose to feature the problem which occupied both Josse De Pauw and Tim Etchells, namely the children’s mental and physical aging process and the fact that consequently, in time, they needed to use a new cast in order to keep it credible, as the main theme of the play. Recordings started in early 2009 with seven children aged between 7 and 12 years old who are now 10 to 14 years old. Over a three year period Gob Squad asked the children on a regular basis to interview themselves on camera and to look back at all kinds of events, both personal and concerning the world around them.

http://www.campo.nu

Gob Squad & Campo

Gob Squad is a German / U.K. collective of artists that has been working with performance, media and new technology since 1994. Always entertaining and often emotional and provocative. Gob Squad's work looks at contemporary identity and the need for fantasy in making sense of everyday life.
Characterised by a desire to place the beautiful in the mundane, their performances often place home-made magic and spectacle next to the banality of everyday life. Quoting a dizzying range of cultural sources, their work playfully looks at the construction of contemporary identity with humour that entertains and provokes. Rather than passively consuming, Gob Squad audiences often take active roles that create special relationships with the artworks. Current touring productions are Super Night Shot, Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve never had it so good), Saving the world, Room Service (help me make it trough the night), …

CAMPO is a new arts centre in Ghent, launched in 2008 and is the result of the merger of Victoria and Nieuwpoorttheater. Exploration and discovery are its key concepts: the well-worn path is never taken. That’s why CAMPO prefers to work with artists who bypass obvious forms of theatre and question the medium. In general CAMPO has a penchant for ‘art brut’ – not streamlined but vulnerable and unpredictable.
CAMPO creates, tours and presents work – both young, small-scale work, as well as large productions – both national and international – not with any specific style or content, but created on the basis of a particular artistic mentality and need.
CAMPO has been working over the years with artists such as Alain Platel, Jérôme Bel, Tim Etchells, Jacob Wren, Josse De Pauw, Jan Decorte, Lies Pauwels, Ben Benaouisse, … .

The show

Programme