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Shown and Told

Tim Etchells (UK) en Meg Stuart (US) / Damaged Goods
Fri 13 May ’22 and Sat 14 May ’22
A dynamic but fragile performance collage built from studio improvisation, balancing fixed material and possibilities for free-play.
Fri 13 May ’22
and
Sat 14 May ’22

“Like boarded up windows, like stone steps, like the sound of voices from a far away room, like the smell of burning, like the way that condensation forms on windows, like searching for something, like searching through rooms.” Tim Etchells

Shown and Told is a dynamic but fragile performance collage built from studio improvisation, balancing fixed material and possibilities for free-play. Arising from an exchange between choreographer and dancer Meg Stuart and writer and performance maker Tim Etchells, it exposes the very different practice and sensibilities of these two artists, exploring the relationship between movement, image and performing bodies. Working with vivid and surprising images, some of them physical some of them linguistic, the two performers develop a conversation that is tough, touching and comical by turns.

 

From an interview with De Morgen

Meg Stuart: "The way we work together could almost be described as symbiotic. We don’t adhere strictly to our respective roles. Sometimes, Tim might start dancing while I come up with words to accompany him. However there is a certain degree of development in this: we often move from highly specific and often personal things to actions that are more open and indefinite."

Tim Stuart: "I’ve discovered that I only truly understand things if I can do them in a number of different ways. I often create neon artworks, and sometimes execute the texts I use for these as drawings, or send them as tweets. It is astonishing how the impact and meaning of the same words can differ so greatly if you present them in a different medium. That’s also the case here: we use things that we created ourselves and are therefore familiar with, but here we discover them in a different way because the context is different."

NL premiere

 

Running time: 60 min

 

13 May's performance is part of the We Are Public programme.

About Meg Stuart

Meg Stuart is an American choreographer and dancer, living and working in Berlin (D) and Brussels (B). In 1994, Stuart founded her company Damaged Goods in Brussels. Together they have worked on over thirty productions, ranging from solos such as XXX for Arlene and Colleagues (1995), Soft Wear (2000) and the evening-length solo Hunter (2014) to large-scale choreographies such as Visitors Only (2003), Built to Last (2012) and UNTIL OUR HEARTS STOP (2015). Other projects include video works, installations, and site-specific creations such as Projecting [Space[ (2017). 

Improvisation is an important part of Stuart’s practice. She has initiated several improvisation projects such as Crash Landing (1996), Auf den Tisch! (2004) and City Lights – a continuous gathering (2016).

Stuart’s oeuvre revolves around the idea of an uncertain body, one that is vulnerable and self-reflexive, and navigates the tension between dance and theatre. Through collaborations with artists from different creative disciplines, the choreographer strives to develop a new language for every piece. Her work constantly redefines itself in search of new presentation contexts and territories for dance. 

Meg Stuart received various awards for her choreographic practice, amongst others a Bessie Award in 2008 and the Konrad-Wolf-Preis in 2012. More recently, La Biennale di Venezia awarded her the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in the category of dance.

Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods has an ongoing collaboration with Kaaitheater (Brussels) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). 

 

About Tim Etchells

Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer based in the UK whose work shifts between visual art, performance and fiction. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of the world-renowned Sheffield-based performance group Forced Entertainment. Recent publications include Vacuum Days (Storythings, 2012) and While You Are With Us Here Tonight (LADA, 2013). He is currently Professor of Performance & Writing at Lancaster University. Before Shown and Told, Etchells and Stuart already collaborated on Alibi (2001), It’s not funny (2006), All Together Now (2008) and the video installation I thought I’d never say this (2008). 


Created and performed by Tim Etchells and Meg Stuart light design Gilles Roosen costumes Annabel Heyse technique Gilles Roosen / Emmanuel Desmyter tour manager Delphine Vincent production Damaged Goods (Brussels) 

Meg Stuart & Damaged Goods are supported by the Government of Flanders and the Flemish Community Commission.

Frascati International