Benjamin Vandewalle derails the daily choreography of public space by investing the train station with dance and musical improvisation. In the course of five days, during peak hours, five dancers and a musician engage in an improvised intervention that “hacks” the everyday routine of commuters and day-trippers. Their durational presence in the station pierces a hole in the quotidian fabric. Trains become giant cameras on rails as they drive slowly along the platform. The streams of people getting in and out of trains and waiting travellers become part of an improvised choreography that makes the often-unnoticed, daily choreographies more visible.

Benjamin Vandewalle studied at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp and graduated from P.A.R.T.S., Brussels in 2006. Since the beginning, a central theme in his work has been 'perception'. He creates movement—not only in the performer’s body but also in that of the spectator. His work is about sharing new experiences and perspectives with a large audience. For the performances Birdwatching (2009) and One/Zero (2011), he worked closely with visual artist and scenographer Erki De Vries. In 2012, he stepped out of the black box and into the public space. His mobile performance Birdwatching 4x4 was a festival favorite amongst audience and critics and toured for several seasons. Later on, he created new works for the black box such as point of view (2013) and Commonground with platform-K (2018), which got selected for het Theaterfestival. Another work that he created is HEAR (2016), which is a sound choreography performed by a choir of 30 volunteers for a blind-folded audience. Right now, Benjamin Vandewalle is touring with his traveling art-fair called Studio Cité (2019), which is a collection of 8 performative installations for the public space that he has been creating the past 6 years.

Performances: 8:00-11:00 and 16:00-19:00

Credits

Concept and direction: Benjamin Vandewalle

Performers: Barbara Pereyra, Lola Vera, Lucia Nieto Vera, Timothy Nouzak, Benjamin Vandewalle

Music: Pak Yan Lau

Coproduction: EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS, Kaap Ostend-Bruges

Executive production: Caravan Production Brussels

Interview

Both the performance Derailed and the installation Off-track fit the festival’s theme perfectly. Can you elaborate on that?
Unconsciously, a daily choreography occurs in a station. Derailed is an artistic answer to break that pattern and even derail it. Off-track reflects the train’s potential as an installation: passengers take their places in a gigantic camera that allows them to observe the landscape from their individual perspectives.

What associations does the ‘train’ evoke in you?
The train is also an installation, a kind of enlarged camera obscura. In addition, time stands still. It’s an in-between space.

With Derailed you perform in public space. What’s the appeal?
It offers the possibility of creating a direct but unexpected effect. You reach people from different social strata, some of whom know nothing about contemporary art. Moreover, this kind of interaction deserves a place in our society. At this moment, I even believe it’s my role as an artist: to unfreeze public space after the corona crisis.

Off-track plays with people’s perceptions, why the interest?
We perceive life from our own perspective, but I strongly believe that it’s good to show that different realities exist side by side. It can even be refreshing to turn our day-to-day view of reality upside down for a moment or create an ‘overview effect’. You will also find a connection to dance in all my installations. It’s always about physicality, about the connections between the spiritual and the physical.