Initially, I was supposed to join Benjamin on this journey but was unfortunately prevented from going. A month later, we undertook a trip along to the locations that impressed Benjamin the most. I recorded these through 3D scans, with those impressions I went to work and created various worlds that the tour depicts internally and externally. As a viewer, you step along, as it were, to the rippling music.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) 6 Suites for cello, BWV 1007-1012
Performed by:
Benjamin Glorieux, cello
Klaas Verpoest & Johan Van Mol, video artist
Steven Reymer, Light Design

“Weg van Bach” is a coproduction of Klara Festival and Bozar
11 March 2023, Klara Festival – Bozar, Henry Le Boeuf Hall (B)

Through the James Webb Space Telescope – NASA’s most powerful telescope – the team discovered the presence of water vapour, sulphur dioxide and sand clouds on the exoplanet WASP-107b. Using specialised imaging techniques, Klaas Verpoest and Johan Van Looveren captured this almost indecipherable data (an endless stream of numbers) from a planet never really seen.
The results of this groundbreaking study were published by the leading scientific journal Nature on 15 November 2023. Immediately afterwards, the news found resonance in the national and international press (VRT news, De Standaard, De Morgen, HLN, The Guardian, USA Today, The Independent, Forbes…).

Credits: 
Illustration: LUCA School of Arts, Belgium/ Klaas Verpoest (visuals), Johan Van Looveren (typography). 
Science: Achrène Dyrek (CEA and Université Paris Cité, France), Michiel Min (SRON, the Netherlands), Leen Decin (KU Leuven, Belgium) / European MIRI EXO GTO team / ESA / NASA

My contribution consists of two different components that are inextricably linked. On the one hand, there is the visual component for the live performance ‘TTT plays FFF/FFF by TTT’, performed by Het Collectief. This performance consists of three compositions: Feldman’s ‘Why Patterns?’ and two new pieces composed by David Fennessy and Jean-Luc Fafchamps respectively. On the other hand, there is the ‘Why Patterns? ‘ installation consisting of 4 modules of 3 compact screens each (there are three musicians/instruments), which can be seen as a prelude or visual research to the actual performance.

What if each instrument represents a star and you assume that you can apply seismological, hydrodynamic, spectral,… algorithms to it, what does that say about the patterns in the composition? Possible comparative analyses of the data from these different instruments will hopefully result in beautiful visual textures and patterns that could potentially unlock this data for an audience in a poetic way.

the performance ‘TTT plays FFF/FFF by TTT’ consists of the following compositions:
Why Patterns? (1978) Morton FELDMAN (1926-1987)
Nieuw werk (2025) David FENNESSY (°1976)
For Morton Feldman (2025) Jean-Luc FAFCHAMPS (°1960)

Performed by Het Collectief
Toon Fret, flute
Thomas Dieltjens, piano
Tom De Cock, percussion
Klaas Verpoest, video performance

‘TTT plays FFF/FFF by TTT’ is a coproduction of Kortrijk Festival (B) and New Music Festival Dublin (IRL)
1 April 2025, De Link – Tilburg (NL)
5 or 6 April 2025, New Music Festival Dublin (IRL)
20 May 2025, Tivoli Vredenburg – Utrecht (NL)

Holographic Duality presents an artistic tribute to the work of Juan Maldacena. Starting from the tiniest elements in sound and vision – particles and glitches – the work attempts to bridge the gap between string theory and a black hole. Sonic matter activates resonating objects, but also fills the dark place in the center of the sound world. Visual matter surprisingly reveals a vibrant hidden world through unexpected interactions. While both seemingly develop independently, they unavoidably collide in an audiovisual explosion. But is this the end, or only a new beginning? 

Visual artist Klaas Verpoest and musician Vincent Caers, both in a PhD trajectory and residents at BAC Art Lab, share an interest in the common ground between art and science. Through recent concerts and installations, created in close collaboration with physicists prof. Thomas Hertog and prof. Stéphane Detournay, they explored astrophysical phenomena such as black holes and the edge of space and time. 

Especially for this event, they created a short performance as a tribute to the honorary doctorate of Juan Maldacena.

Performers:
Vincent Caers: Sound artist
Klaas Verpoest: Video artist

This concert will take place on February 2.2022, 10h45 – Pieter De Somer Auditorium – Leuven
Reservation: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/about-kuleuven/patron-saints-day#eredoctores22

Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? How do we detect exoplanets? How do we hope to find life on exoplanets light-years away? What is “TRAPPIST-1”? What do exoplanets tell us about the famous “Fermi’s Paradox”?

The Copernican Revolution taught us that our Earth, far from being the center of the Universe, is only one among the many planets orbiting the Sun, which is itself similar in every respect to the stars lining the celestial vault. Later, astronomy revealed that there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, our galaxy, and that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our expanding Universe. Faced with such immensity, it is very tempting to hypothesize the existence of other inhabited planets out there, and even of other advanced civilizations. Long confined to speculations, the existence of exoplanets, i.e. planets in orbit around other stars than the Sun, became a proven fact at the end of last century. Since then, more than 4000 exoplanets have been detected at an ever-accelerating pace. A few dozens of these are “potentially habitable”, i.e. they could be rocky worlds harboring oceans of water on their surface, like our Earth. Imagining complex forms of life on some of these planets is but a small step away, one that is happily crossed by science-fiction. But our imagination will eventually be replaced by real scientific measurements, as upcoming giant telescopes will soon be able to probe the atmospheric compositions of some of these extrasolar worlds, and, who knows, to reveal chemical traces of life out there. If so, our view of the Cosmos will change forever…

This concert was performed and recorded on October 24, 2021, Flagey Brussels

Event organized by Science & Cocktails in collaboration with the International Solvay Institutes.

Performers:
Composer: Benjamin Glorieux
Cellists: Benjamin Glorieux, Bryggen String Orchestra
Vincent Caers: electronics
Klaas Verpoest: live video

‘The Solitary One’ is a performative installation transforming the most extreme and paradoxical object that our universe harbours – a black hole – into an immersive audiovisual experience.

Visual artist Klaas Verpoest, sound artist Vincent Caers and cellist-composer Benjamin Glorieux tend to unite art and science in their individual work. A shared fascination for the inexplicable aspects of a black hole and the concepts of space and time led to a joint venture in which they explore the artistic potential of their combined disciplines for illustrating these themes. Along the way they collaborated with theoretical physicist Stéphane Detournay. Their aim is not to provide a scientific explanation, which remains the scientist’s task, but instead to create an immersive installation offering the audience an opportunity for experiencing cosmological phenomena and the incredible forces driving them.

October 23, 2021 – Februari 27, 2022: ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
October 23, 2021: Opening performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
February 18, 2022: Closing performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
September 8, 2023 – February 4, 2024: Space is the Place exhibition – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)
December 7, 2023: Space is the Place performance – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)

Credits:
Vincent Caers: Sound Artist
Benjamin Glorieux: Cellist/Composer
Stéphane Detournay: Scientific Advisor
Klaas Verpoest: Video artist

In this lecture-performance, electronic musician Vincent Caers, theoretical physicist Thomas Hertog, and visual artist Klaas Verpoest take you on a voyage into a black hole, to the edge of time … and beyond.

The concert takes place in an inflatable dome and immerses the audience in a journey in 360º generative image and sound.

Performers:
Thomas Hertog: lecture
Vincent Caers: live electronics
Klaas Verpoest: video

Performed on November 29, 2021 – Planetarium Music Festival, Leuven [B]

‘Sichtlaut’ is an cross-media improvising collective, combining musicians, visual artists and dancers. Through each performance, they explore the borders of the different media involved.

Performers:
Peter Jacquemyn: Double Base | Voice
Jan Pillaert: bastuba | Voice
Vincent Caers: live electronics
Geraldo Si: dance
Lazara Rosell Albear: dance | pocket trumpet
Sofia Kakouri: dance | pocket trumpet
Klaas Verpoest: live video

Performed on October 24, 2019 – BAC Art Lab, Leuven [B]
Camera | Pierre Michel Zaleski

The End of Space and Time concert in Flagey was the closing event for the Strings2019 conference.
Together with Cellist Benjamin Glorieux I created a performance especially for the occasion. Inspired by ‘strings’ in all its varieties.

Cellist Benjamin Glorieux and visual artist Klaas Verpoest have created a performance especially for the occasion. Inspired by ‘strings’ in all its varieties, they enthusiastically agreed.

Insisting on finding as many strings as possible they promptly invited 2 pianists, Anthony Romaniuk and Rembrandt Frerichs-with-his-trio – that makes more or less 464 strings – and 5 fellow cellists, that’s 24 strings. Electronica-wizzard Jo Thielemans won’t bring any string, but he brings other stuff!

The output will be multifaceted like a diamond’s surface, even if the orgulous music of JS Bach will always be nearby… But it will all sound absolutely new, as if covered with stardust from those more or less 500 strings and thanks to the creativity of the players and the extraterrestrial acoustics of Studio 4!

13.08.2019: Studio 4 – Flagey, Brussels

Performers:
Cellists: Benjamin Glorieux, Liesemarie Beelaerts, Seraphine Stragier, Pieter Matthynssens, Pieter-Jan De Smet, Harmen Goossens
Anthony Romaniuk: piano
Jo Thielemans: electronics
The Rembrandt Frerichs trio: Piano, Double base, drums
Klaas Verpoest: live video

Based on a novella by Philippe Claudel Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh is a moving story about a man who has to flee his country with the little he has left.
Koen de Sutter does the show as a monologue. Because De Sutter is alone on stage and performs all of the roles – the narrator, Mr Linh and Mr Bark – it gains a special flavour, atmosphere and significance. It becomes a show about the power of the imagination and of portrayal. De Sutter tells the story with all of the means available to him: dramatic action, words, images, music, sound, projections….

Credits
director: Guy Cassiers
text: Philippe Claudel
with:
– Koen de Sutter (Dutch spoken version)
– Jérome Kircher (French spoken version)
– Jules Werner (English spoken version)
– Lluis Homar (Spanish spoken version)

video design: Klaas Verpoest
sound design: Diederik de Cock
kostuumadvies: Tim Van Steenbergen
production: Toneelhuis

30.09.18: Het Kleine meisje van Mijnheer Linh (premiere) | Het Toneelhuis – Antwerpen
15.03.18: La petite fille de monsieur Linh (premiere) | Le Phénix – Valenciennes (FR)
07.12.18: La néta del Senyor Linh (premiere) | Temporada Alta Festival – Girona (ES)
03.05.19: Monsieur Linh and his child (premiere) | Les Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg – Luxembourg (LU)
On tour in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Luxembourg,… (visit Toneelhuis for all data)

“Very beautiful production, because the essence of the story is about a search for contact that transcends inadequate communication through language. Cassiers works with a ‘moving typography’ to give the very poetic but also concise and purified text a kind of deeper emotion.”– Evelyne Coussens in Klara , 2 October 2017