multilingual | Etcetera

I’m someone else when I step into the club

Sara Dziri and Eric Cyuzuzo about the nightlife of their dreams

Endless fun, unlimited freedom, wild partying: that’s what nightlife is, isn’t it? Or isn’t it? Just like in the performing arts world, there is ongoing debate in the nightlife about safe(r) spaces and non-mixed spaces, about inclusion and the question what freedom actually means. Which written and unwritten rules apply in the club? Natalie Gielen discusses it with nightlife programmer Eric Cyuzuzo and with DJ, producer, artist, and organiser Sara Dziri, who both effortlessly navigate between the performing arts and the nightlife. DJ, actress, and curator Bouchra Lamsyeh adds a statement to this: is everything really allowed at night?

Natalie Gielen

interview 11.04.2023

Ghosts

On being haunted by pioneering women artists of the past

For those who are on stage, surrender usually counts as a high good. But when does surrender become submission, when are boundaries not only tested but crossed, and what ambiguous role does a term like ‘consent’ play in this? Using pioneering female performance artists from the past, Ilse Ghekiere dissects pain and empowerment in contemporary performing arts.

Ilse Ghekiere

essay 06.04.2023

‘All Night Long’ by Chantal Akerman

Dance, the maternal and the push and pull against the form.

The feature length film ‘Toute une nuit'(1982), ‘All Night Long’, is an early work by the Belgian director Chantal Akerman (1950-2015). ‘All Night long’ is constructed through tableaux that come together as a sort of choreography made of multiple bodies, with no lead. As the title suggests, we follow these bodies “all night long” from dusk to dawn as they run to and from each other, examining the various possibilities of where and what they want to be. It is a warm summer night, as they are rare in the mostly rainy Brussels where the film is set.

Nathalie Rozanes

essay 02.02.2023

Nieuwsbrief

A small act of intimate protest

What growing wild lemon plants taught me

Exhausted from witnessing how life (human and not) is reduced to a mere techno-element of the neo-liberal machine, in the silence of my room, I cultivated limoni for the future. Somewhere between potting soil and fiction, these little green dreams snuck into the interstices of my confined life and together we began to imagine a garden, dispersed yet interconnected.

Matteo De Blasio

essay 12.01.2023

Glitches, memes and playbackshows

Performance in the post-internet era

Drag is gaining popularity and visibility at a rapid pace. With the body as a canvas and the internet as its inspiration, an exciting playground emerges for the drag artist. Simon Baetens zooms in on this whimsical art form.

Simon Baetens

essay 10.11.2022

قصص نابعة من الشارع

شكسبير سقطت عكازه في بغداد

إبتلى المخرج البلجيكي من أصل عراقي انكيدو خالد بمِيكروب المسرح منذ شبابه في العراق بفضل شكسبير وبريخت. غير أن الحرب والفوضى التي أعقبت سقوط نظام صدام الديكتاتوري دفعته هو وغيره من المسرحيين الشباب إلى التخلي عن الذخيرة المسرحية الغربية. فالواقع الذي عاشوه لا يمكن بأي حال من الأحوال أن يجد إنعكاسا في المرجعية الغربية. يروي انكيدو خالد كيف تاثرت نشأته كشخص وكفنان بالواقع المٌرّ للعراق في القرن الحادي والعشرين.

Enkidu Khaled

essay 08.11.2022

Pomiędzy pandemią a protestem

Wzmożenie aktywizmu performatywnego w Polsce.

Artysta Szymon Adamczak podróżuje pomiędzy Niderlandami a jego krajem rodzinnym – Polską. Od czasu wybuchu pandemii Covid-19, jest świadkiem tego, jak liczna grupa polskich obywateli – artystów, aktywistów, pracowników społecznych, młodzieży i rodzin – wychodzi na ulice, protestuje i działa w przestrzeni publicznej z nowo odnalezionym poczuciem pilności. Polityczny nacisk antydemokratycznej, skrajnie prawicowej ideologii jest większy niż kiedykolwiek, ale wraz z nim wzrasta determinacja ludzi wykrzykujących: wypierdalać!

Szymon Adamczak

essay 07.11.2022