We just got back from our performance with Matt, Tomma, Shila and David as Inter Inter Inter at de Bijloke in Gent. We had the most amazing time. First of all we can’t resist praising highly Tomma and Kristoff {sorry if that’s wrong; I never saw your name written down!} and their two great boys for putting us up and feeding us and being such generous hosts. The theme continues with the music centre de Bijloke. The staff were amazing and attentive, we never went hungry and thirsty, and the director of the centre was very generous with his time and interest. The building is amazing, very beautiful, and all the needs of the performers have been met really well. It is also worth noting that the building doesn’t give the impression of any area being off limits. The backstage area is integrated so subtly that it feels like a really non-hierarchical space. Compare that to a rock venue and the subtle-as-a-train-wreck mystique they try and build up around acts and their sudden appearance on-stage, and you really see the maturity of the building.
Gent, which is beautiful, is also striking in its lack of self-conciousness. It does not feel provincial in the way English cities and towns do. I can’t really understand why English, and even Scottish cities, can’t escape the comparison with London at every turn. Gent just assumes that great art can and will happen there. And why not?
The show itself went really well. You can see a clip here of one of the acts.
The performance was continuous, with Ping* and myself printing at the anatomy theatre benches as the audience entered; we printed tasks relating to the music. As there were four acts {two pieces repeated} we printed in four colours cyan magenta yellow and black. These add together when printed on top of each other to make a full-colour image. We took the theme of the antique anatomy theatre we were in to allude to an anatomy lesson. The music, the pictures, the performance, and indeed the whole world is made of bits and pieces joined together.
Following the music we bound the book in the bar as a concertina, eventually about 17m long, and got two volunteers to sit on the book as it dried. A professional bookbinder who happenned to be in the audience joined in the making, which was a delightful and unexpected bonus! Further pictures will be posted once we have recovered our strength!
Christof
I’m glad you enjoyed your stay. I really liked the performance and I thought the resulting book was really great.