An audience must be won over, one by one.
This edition of Prelude, titled One by One, combines moving image, live performance and performance documentation, and considers the question of how the body is seen, heard, defined and restricted. Dutch performance and video art pioneer Lydia Schouten enters into dialogue with artist Astrit Ismaili, who works in a similar spirit. Brussels-based Amina Szecsödy presents a performance and a spotlight is turned on the radical oeuvre of Hugo Roelandt. The artists’ future-oriented historical and recent works will converge this evening in an assemblage of live and projected images unfolding across time and space.
Since the late 1970s, Lydia Schouten (*1948) has been uncompromisingly shaping her position as a woman and as a female artist. In her early performances, Schouten uses her own body, while her video works focus on varying characters in often alienating worlds. The media's influence is a recurring motif.
Astrit Ismaili (*1991) uses body extensions, wearable instruments, alter egos and songwriting to explore the ‘transformative potential of body and space’, as well as new and unconventional forms of embodiment and representation. Early video works reveal a different side to the artist, who is known for their emotionally charged performances.
Themes such as beauty, lust and self-image, but also the desire for contact, are important to both artists. With unbounded imagination, Ismaili and Schouten create bold images and respond to imposed social and structural boundaries. During this Prelude evening, the artists will perform together.
Amina Szecsödy (*1995) is interested in historical views of the female body and voice as disruptors of power. She combines elements from the media, cinema and mythology, interweaving voices, images and stories from the past and future in the immediate present. Her performance Mean Time explores the relationship between present and future through the figure of a female oracle and reflects on the role of language and the power of words.
Finally, the work of Hugo Roelandt (*1950 – †2015) is highlighted in photographic images. Roelandt sought to deconstruct traditional notions of art. In the 1980s, he introduced “post-performance” as a system-oriented approach to the medium, independent of the artist’s body. Performers were replaced by machines and the emphasis shifted to the audience's role in the experience of art. Art not as a solitary activity, but as a shared, participatory experience.
Roelandt's working method thus connects with that of Prelude: experimenting with formats, defying conventions and with an emphasis on collective experience. Addressing themes of agency and autonomy, and through the interplay between artists and audience, this Prelude program once again invites you to experience and connect. You are most welcome.
* ‘An audience must be won over, one by one’ is the title of a painting by artist Sands Murray-Wassink, who was part of Prelude’s inaugural program.
About Prelude:
Prelude is a series of live events emphasising the interrelations and influences between moving image and performance, and between visual artists of distinct generations. The concept is inspired by musical preludes, originally intended for musicians to tune their instruments before a concert, and show off their virtuosity for incoming audience members.
Prelude invites artists and audiences to 'attune to one another' and consider the theatre as a site for time-based visual art. In contrast to the individual viewing experience of the exhibition format, Prelude emphasises the audience’ collective presence and the theatre’s physical space as integral to the experience of the work.
The name Prelude suggests an opening to something new, something that is to come. Through encouraging collaboration and providing support, Prelude promotes new avenues for the invited artists and fosters new perspectives on their work.
