The KVS, the Brussels city theatre, is leaving its haven behind and going out into Brussels for a whole season. Tok Toc Knock will be knocking at residents’ doors in three separate districts, inviting them to have a conversation, to involve themselves, to join in and of course to be a part of the audience. The KVS will be creating theatre and related art in and together with the districts involved, for everyone who lives there, but just as much for our familiar theatre audience, who we invite to discover and explore these parts of Brussels. Seventeen artists of various backgrounds, dutch- speaking and French-speaking, from Brussels or elsewhere, new and well-known faces, will be working in the city for several months. In and around the social housing blocks in Laken’s Model district, in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels smallest and most colourful neighborhood, and in the complex European Quarter. at the end of their stay they will show their creations in the course of a two-week festival. Performances, outdoor installations, walks, discussions, workshops and much more; it’s all in the pipeline. We don’t know exactly how Tok Toc Knock will end, but one thing’s for certain: we’ll be returning to the KVS in June 2013 with a lot of new experiences and a plan for a splendid apotheosis.
By and with: Simon Allemeersch, Thomas Bellinck, Romain David, Didier de Neck, Guy Dermul, Youssef El Ajmi, Ruud Gielens, Koen Monserez, Mohamed Ouachen, Pierre Sartenaer, Menno Vandevelde, Ann Van de Vyvere, Annelies Van Hullebusch, Mieke Verdin, Benjamin Verdonck, Jozef Wouters, Thomas Gunzig & Einat Tuchman.
The coordinator of the project, the theatre-maker and actor Willy Thomas, describes the preparations for the artists’ residencies and festivals in a blog at www.toktocknock.com.
Read the text about Brussels of Eric Corijn (professor of Social and Cultural Geography at the VUB) here.
Ann Van de Vyvere’s walk on and round the Van Meyel Plein makes one reflect on exchange, which is what makes a society a society rather than a loose collection of individuals.
Together with a number of kindred spirits, Ruud Gielens goes in search of signs of resistance in the no-go areas of the European Quarter. How can one remove the dividing line between art and political activism?
Jozef Wouters is building a new wing onto the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels and is showing a collection of images and moments there that attempt to depict man’s position on this planet.
Connexion Kin, the anual festival by KVS in Kinshasa will be taking place from june 7th until june 16th. With premières by Faustin Linyekula, Dieudonné Niangouna, Brett Bailey, Boyzie Cekwana and others.
KVS_ Repertoire: 10 years of outstanding work
Reflections by dramaturge Hildegard De Vuyst (KVS)
KVS and its relation to repertoire
On the 4th December a debate took place in KVS on repertoire in theatre, with guest speakers Guy Cassiers, Faustin Linyekula and Amir Nizar Zuabi. As an introduction Jan Goossens, artistic director of KVS, wrote the following text.
