Why are we afraid? Fear is an evolutionary survival mechanism, but today it mostly seems to paralyse us with intense feelings of distrust, uneasiness, and stress. Moreover, a political culture of fearmongering and panic—one that divides people—is increasingly taking up space worldwide.

Where do certain shared fears come from, and how have they shaped our culture? Power dynamics and stigmatizing representations always seem to play a role here. Who is seen as the perpetrator, who as the victim? Who fights, who stays silent? Who wins, and who loses?

When fear is taken for granted, it reinforces a status quo that suggests change is impossible. Yet fear could just as well be a driving force, a signal that we’ve reached a crucial point for action. If fear limits our freedom, and art is an act of freedom, how can we use art to counteract this paralysis?

KVS dramaturge Dina Dooreman invites artists and speakers to a performative reflection program at KVS. Through (artistic) interventions, different fears will be dissected, and ways will be explored to turn them into a unifying counter-reaction. An act of subversion, deconstruction, and activation. Fuck fear!

TIMETABLE

Foyer

18:30 the evening opens with BLERI LLESHI, political philosopher, human rights activist and documentary filmmaker, author (among others) of Love in Times of Fear. In his work, he explores social and economic inequality, interculturality and questions of identity and seeks to offer a connecting response to the polarising fears present in our (Brussels) society.

Musical intermezzo by PITCHO WOMBA KONGA, rapper, producer, actor and multidisciplinary theatre maker. As a Belgian with Congolese roots, he explores his own identity and that of Brussels through hip-hop culture and the performing arts. Through language en sound, he brings to life the dark spirits that move through our streets and lives.

19:00 the theatre collective KRAPP (Mats Vandroogenbroeck*, Nona Demey Gallagher and Timo Sterckx) presents an unsettling performance within their creation Copyriot. They approach the concept of the doppelgänger through the idea of the monstrous as a mirror of our deepest fears. In a world increasingly made of copies of copies, the loss of individuality appears as a disturbing reality for the narcissistic human.
*Mats Vandroogenbroeck will be replaced by Naomi van der Horst for this one-off performance of Fear No More.

Break at the bar

Foyer

20:00 musical intermezzo by PITCHO WOMBA KONGA

20:10 author and theatre maker MARTHA BALTHAZAR dissects the concept of fear, as emotion, form and political tool.

Bar

20:30 the boiling culinary artists MICHELLE WOODS and GITTE HENDRIKX translate our complex relationship to disgust and desire into a chaotic food performance.

Foyer

21:15 DINA DOOREMAN presents a lecture performance on cockroaches and Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. She shows where our aversion to the cockroach comes from and how this animal can also become a source of inspiration to overcome fear.

18:00–22:00 DJ RAAK ME AAN ties the evening together with trembling fingers and whistling ears, in a soundtrack that is both unheimlich and captivating.