Ceci n’est pas
The Dutch artist Dries Verhoeven concocts potentially explosive images, deliberately questions our social taboos. 10 days, 10 events, 10 cold showers.
INSIDIOUS IMAGES
A glass box in the city centre. Inside is a living tableau that changes every day. Disconcerting scenes – that some find embarrassing, others intriguing – leave no one indifferent. The Dutch artist Dries Verhoeven concocts destabilizing and potentially explosive images, deliberately poking away at our taboos. 10 days, 10 events, 10 cold showers.
Ceci n’est pas… presents different people in a display case in situations that do not meet the criteria of perfection and success promoted by marketing propaganda. In an era of visual discomfiture where the passerby is submerged by reassuring visual ads aimed at the frenetic consumers we have become, this highly subversive jack-in-the-box worms its way into the city centre, upsetting orthodox convictions, disturbing humdrum routines. Taken aback and maybe even shocked, spectators express opinions, argue, reflect. The public space, suddenly a theatre of imperfection and trouble, becomes a place for discussion and exchange. This is not a commercial.
PRODUCED BY DRIES VERHOEVEN
CREATED BY DRIES VERHOEVEN
ARTISTIC ASSISTANT ILON LODEWIJKS
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR SASKIA SCHOENMAKER
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR ROEL EVENHUIS
IN COLLABORATION WITH NUMEROUS PERFORMERS
PRESENTED WITH THE SUPPORT OF PERFORMING ARTS FUND NL
CO-PRESENTED BY QUARTIER DES SPECTACLES
WRITTEN BY DIANE JEAN
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH
PREMIERED AT PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL, UTRECHT, STARTING ON MAY 16, 2013
DRIES VERHOEVEN (Utrecht)
Playful and Disturbing
Initially renowned as a set designer, the artist Dries Verhoeven creates works that are part theatre, part installations. His performances and events are presented in museums as well as public spaces in the city. His pieces constantly question the relationship between life and art, between those who create and those who look, offering different angles of reflection and stimulating reactions and debate. Confronted, the spectator must respond to what appears before his eyes – nothing half-hearted about it.
