Just like any other form of transport, the train has altered our perception of distance and space: speed makes distances shorter. Moreover, with the arrival of the Internet, the entire world is just a mouse click away: it comes to us in real-time via all sorts of screens. Conversely, we go out into the world with a screen in our hand to record, adjust and share landscapes, monuments, and other landmarks. How does that affect our experience of the here and now? Can we still distinguish the ‘real’ world from the virtual one?
For Screens, you get on a train and find yourself in another world: the windows of the carriage turn into high-resolution screens showing images created in a model train landscape. As you travel along the Belgian railway network, you feel like you are rolling through toy versions of other landscapes and cities. From the ‘real’ world to an unreal, virtual world. As if you are travelling inside Google Maps, or in the Caribbean, thanks to a filter on Zoom... Kris Verdonck perfects illusion in this new immersive video installation. When you get on a train in Screens, you sit inside a real carriage and at the same time you are elsewhere. You are ‘real’ in an artificial toy world. Both here, and not here: an ultimate form of being in transit?
Participation in Screens is free with the purchase of a train ticket.
Tuesday 26/04
8803 Schaarbeek - Quievrain 17:03 - 19:06
Wednesday 27/04
8741 Schaarbeek - Binche 16:30 - 18:06
Thursday 28/04
Screens will not take place today due to a technical problem.
Friday 29/04
Screens will not take place today due to a technical problem.
Monday 02/05
3428 Mechelen Binche 06:58 - 08:39
3409 Binche Turnhout 09:20 - 11:54
4213 Turnhout Antwerpen-Centraal 13:21 - 14:13
4235 Antwerpen-Centraal Turnhout 14:47 - 15:37
3438 Turnhout Binche 16:04 - 18:39
Wednesday 04/05
5131 Schaarbeek - Kortrijk 09:47 - 11:16
5111 Kortrijk - Schaarbeek 11:43 -13:13
5135 Schaarbeek - Kortrijk 13:47 - 15:16
5115 Kortrijk - Brussels-South 15:43 -16:59
Thursday 05/05
5133 Schaarbeek - Kortrijk 11:47 - 13:16
5113 Kortrijk - Schaarbeek 13:43 - 15:13
8513 Schaarbeek - Moeskroen 16:10 -17:50
The training Kris Verdonck (°1974) followed in the visual arts, architecture and theatre, is reflected in the work he makes. His creations can be situated in the border area between the visual arts and theatre, between installation and performance, between dance and architecture. His theatre and visual arts projects include 5 (2003), Catching Whales Is Easy (2004), and II (2005). Verdonck often combines installations/performances in the form of VARIATIONS. The development of his oeuvre has been marked by projects such as UNTITLED (2014), a dance solo about a performer who is confined to the theatre, as if by a mechanical construction. His other creations include ISOS (2015) (a nine-part, 3D video installation that takes the apocalyptic science-fiction novels of J.G. Ballard as its starting point); IN VOID (2016) (an installation circuit about human absence); BOSCH BEACH (2016) (an opera in which the fake paradise of resorts and Hieronymus Bosch’s hell on Earth flow seamlessly into one another); and a large-scale theatre production, Conversations (at the end of the world) (September 2017). SOMETHING (out of nothing) premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2019. This performance crosses the boundaries of theatre and museum, in search of human fragility between presence and absence. In parallel to the performance, the installation circuit BOGUS I-III was presented at KANAL – Centre Pompidou.
Credits
Director and concept: Kris Verdonck
Dramaturgy: Kristof van Baarle
Technical coordinator and electronics: Vincent Malstaf
Director of photography: Vincent Pinckaers
Production: Eefje Wijnings
Thanks to: Kristof Avonds
Coproduction: EUROPALIA Arts Festival, in collaboration with Railway Heritage and Train World Charters and Collections (NMBS), Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporain
With the support of the Flemish Authorities, the Flemish Community Commission.