Miet Warlop (BEL)
Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Break
- SZENE Salzburg
This year the remarkable Belgian artist Miet Warlop is a guest at Sommerszene for the first time. In her internationally acclaimed piece Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Break she leads the audience into a hypnotic world: a Western version of Sufi dervishes. Three performers revolve in circles incessantly for 45 minutes – a movement intended to release a state of religious ecstasy in Sufi ceremonies. The handbrake referenced in the title, that no longer works, could be a classic motif for nightmares: being unable to stop while heading for disaster. However, it can also be a synonym for feeling free and able to make uninhibited progress. With Miet Warlop, events on stage consistently build to a climax: gradually rock music and song are added to the revolving dance, increasingly heightening the performance until it becomes an intense trip for the audience. Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Break is a dizzying experiment in perception, a hybrid of whirling dance, music and lighting that treads a fine line between control and loss of control.
Miet Warlop studied multimedia art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent and works in Ghent, Berlin and Brussels. Since 2018 she has been a resident director at NTGent, led by Milo Rau. Her multi-award-winning works shift between visual theatre, performance and installation. She often leads audiences into surreal worlds and quirky perceptive experiments such as the powerfully visual Mystery Magnet (2012) or Fruits of Labor (2016), a production for a male band. Last summer One Song was greeted with standing ovations at the Festival d'Avignon.
Text passages in English
Artist Talk June 16 after the performance
Concept & direction: Miet Warlop
Performance: Wietse Tanghe, Joppe Tanghe, Miet Warlop Music: Pieter Demeester, Wietse Tanghe, Miet Warlop
Lyrics: Raimundas Malasauskas, Miet Warlop, Pieter De Meester
Technique & production: Jesse De Roo, Thomas Vermaercke, Patrick Vanderhaegen
Sound technology: Bart Van Hoydonck
Lighting design: Henri Emmanuel Doublier
Costumes: Karolien Nuyttens
Production: Miet Warlop/Irene Wool vzw & NTGent
A coproduction of Arts Centre Vooruit Gent, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin with support from flemish Authorities, City of Ghent, Actoral 17, Marseille.
Thanks to Carl Gydé, Jérôme Dupraz, Ian Gyselinck, Michiel Goedertier (LaRoy NV), Janis Van Heesbeke (ongezien), Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Brahim Benhaddou, Seppe Cosyns, Elke Vanlerberghe, Niels Antonissen, Mathias Batsleer, Carla Beeckmans, Midas Heuvinck, Arno Truyens, Bennert Vancottem