In Progress – Klaas Verpoest

The Solitary One

Klaas — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 08:20:05 +0000

There you are, solitary in the middle of a pitch-black hole. How did you get there, and how could you get out? You’re shouting, screaming, signaling to the outside world, but everything seems to return to you like a boomerang. Nothing can escape the horizon, or does it? Is there something or someone out there who might see or hear your experience inside?

‘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

©PhotoVirginieSchreyen

To the Edge of Time

Klaas — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 19:47:35 +0000

Time is the most mundane thing in the world. We all use it every day; we waste it, save it, and enjoy it. It’s just out there, like a big clock, ticking away. But what is time? What is it made of? Did it have a beginning? Will it ever end? Does it cycle around? Can we do without time?

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]

©photoJuergenHolst

Het kleine meisje van Meneer Linh

Klaas — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:49:20 +0000

Mister Linh flees his war-ravaged country in search of a better future for his granddaughter. Mister Linh doesn’t feel at home in the foreign land where he finds himself, until one day he meets mister Bark.

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

©PhotoKurtVanDerElst

WORP_ cross-media improvising collective

Klaas — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:18:16 +0000

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

Sound receives a body. Movement creates traces. Form becomes sound. A game of feedback arises, dissolving the contours between instruments, players and material.

Peter Jacquemyn (double bass, voice), Jan Pillaert (tuba, voice), Klaas Verpoest (visuals), Geraldo Si (dance), Vincent Caers (live electronics, percussion) and Sofia Kakouri (dance) have been performing together in different configurations. Fundamental to their collaboration is the improvisational approach, the equality of art-forms and the transfer of each performer’s attitude into an unique interdisciplinary experience, adopting each others strategy.

By definition, music and movement are temporary, mobile and repeatable. Plastic arts are unique, static and made for eternity. The collective brings unique, not repeatable music and exercise combined and confronted with plastic arts and this with a pronounced temporary performance character. The action leads to the idea, the interaction shows the way.

28.10.2017: Impact Session – Vooruit, Gent
26.01.2018: sound//vision at International Film Festival Rotterdam – WORM, Rotterdam
14.10.18: Lovt, Brussels
20.10.18: Open Studio – BatimentA, Leuven
28.11.18: Show Research #7 – Terrarium, Brussels

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

Pictures by Marilyn Desmet

Crippled Symmetry | Morton Feldman

Klaas — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 11:39:40 +0000

In Morton Feldman’s music, silence plays a prominent role, thanks to the hushed volume and the interval between sounds.

In Crippled Symmetry Feldman builds on repetitive motifs (patterns), knotting and weaving his sounds the way Anatolian nomads make their carpets. It is from those carpets that Feldman borrowed the concept of imperfect or ‘crippled’ symmetry. Listening to Feldman’s work is a strange but overwhelming experience.

Performed by: Het Collectief
Thomas Dieltjens, piano & celesta | Toon Fret, flute | Tom De Cock, percussion
Klaas Verpoest, Motion Design

14.04.2016: Crippled Symmetry, Miryzaal – Gent
20.04.2016: Crippled Symmetry, CC Maasmechelen – Maasmechelen

08.11.2014: Crippled Symmetry, SLOW (36H) / Concertgebouw – Brugge

Helemaal desintegreren mocht de tijd tijdens het prachtige Crippled Symmetry van de Amerikaanse componist Morton Feldman, gebracht door Het Collectief met visuals van Klaas Verpoest. Breekbare motieven dreven anderhalf uur lang als eilandjes door de stilte en braken met elk lineair concept van tijd.
De Standaard

Pierrot Lunaire – Opus 21 | Arnold Schönberg

Klaas — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:21:09 +0000

Pierrot Lunaire, composed by Arnold Schönberg in 1912 on poems by the Belgian symbolist Albert Giraud. The music of Arnold Schönberg, especially ‘Pierrot Lunaire’, is a hallucinatory masterpiece and an absolute landmark of musical history.
Performed with the Belgian ensemble Het Collectief.

Conductor: Robin Engelen
Ensemble: Het Collectief
Performers: Jacqueline Janssen – Mezzo soprano, Wibert Aerts – violin, Benjamin Dieltjens – clarinet, Thomas Dieltjens – piano, Toon Fret – flute, Martijn Vink – cello

14.01.2016: De Singel – Antwerpen
10.01.2013: Cultuurcentrum – Hasselt [B]
16.12.2012: Concertgebouw Amsterdam – Amsterdam [NL]
27.10.2012: Flagey Studio 1 – Brussel [B]
10.02.2012: Stadspodia Leiden – Almarktzaal, Leiden [NL]
14.01.2011: De Nieuwe Veste – Breda [NL]