Burning Ice: the art of sustainable living

(We Have Never Been Here Before (© Labofii) / Sitting with the Body 24/7 (© Quentin De Wispelaere) / Into the Big World (© Thibault Grégoire) / Sfumato (© Jacques Hoepffner))

When the Kaaitheater organised the first edition of Burning Ice, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had just produced a pessimistic report on the state of the Earth. The IPCC has now reached its fifth report, while Burning Ice has arrived at its eighth edition. It remains undaunted and is still inspiring us to live more sustainable lives. The Kaaitheater’s artistic director Guy Gypens outlined the programme for us.


Insurrectionary imagination
“Maybe we should begin by taking a look at the final section, which is the most activist part of the festival. John Jordan and Isabelle Frémeaux of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Labofii) are typical activist-artists. In We Have Never Been Here Before, they withdraw into the theatre again for a moment, to look back at the results of ten years of ‘artivism’ and to consider what to do next. Labofii is also organising a three-day workshop‚ The Art of Creative Resistance, in which young creative folk can cook up imaginative activities. And we end on Saturday with a bigger happening to mark Global Divestment Day, which aims to reduce investment in fossil fuels worldwide.”
The Art of Creative Resistance: 12 & 13/2, 10 > 18.00, Kaaistudios, 14/2, 10 > 0.00, Kaaitheater / We Have Never Been Here Before: 13/2, 21.00, Kaaistudios
Love Life: Hate Fossil Fuels: 14/2, 10 > 0.00, Kaaitheater


Bodily introspection
“The project that lasts longest is by Heike Langsdorf and her radical_hope collective. In a previous edition, Heike was to be found on a quay alongside the Kaaitheater with her Changing Tents. With her, we always do somewhat larger-scale, experimental things. Sitting with the Body 24/7 lasts seven days; it takes place in an empty retail outlet at the edge of the Centre, at street level. From morning to evening, a group of performers will carry out a protracted bodily introspection in a choreography that takes as its starting point everyday movements such as sitting, lying, walking, standing, dancing, and talking. So it’s about human vulnerability and our everyday physical activities. It will be interesting, of course, to see what comes out of the interaction with the public passing by. For the idea is also to get people to come in and join in the exercises.”
Sitting with the Body 24/7: 9 > 15/2, 24/7, Muntcentrum/Centre Monnaie

The age of Enlightenment
“David Weber-Krebs’s Into the Big World is a sort of analysis of how we relate to the Enlightenment ideas today. The Dutch-German artist takes as his starting point a fairly typical library in the Netherlands where people set out to collect just about all the knowledge that humanity had acquired until then and to open it up in a well-organised way as a foundation for future progress. Weber-Krebs contrasts the certainty involved in that with the uncertainty resulting from the superabundance of knowledge today. How do we deal with the lack of clarity about the consequences of things we have done on the basis of our knowledge, consequences we are clearly not so good at assessing? How does that not-knowing relate to the Enlightenment thinking that is still such a powerful influence on our political behaviour?”
Into the Big World: 10/2, 20.30 & 11/2, 19.00, Kaaistudios

(What Nature Says / Monstrous Encounters of Clowns (© Nada Gambier) / Let op de kloof!)


Blurry contours
"The largest-scale production in the festival comes from the French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane. Sfumato is a co-production with a number of other members of our European network Imagine 2020, which makes connections between art and ecological issues. Ouramdane’s shows are usually about migration: about movements of people and their history and consequences. This time he takes a look at climate refugees, with whom he did interviews around the world. Those conversations are set against the background of a very accessible, almost exuberant production that is probably the most traditional new work in the festival.” Ouramdane used to dance with Meg Stuart, among others. Sfumato is an Italian word used to describe a painting technique in which contours are blurred; here, it serves as a metaphor for a number of ecological themes.
Sfumato: 11/2, 20.30, Kaaitheater


Nature’s voices
“One major premiere, which I’m very curious about myself, is the new production by the Belgian artist Myriam van Imschoot. The starting point for What Nature Says is the way nature reacts to humanity. We are already familiar with a number of examples from nature documentaries, for example the David Attenborough one in which a lyre bird perfectly imitates the sounds made by cameras or chainsaws. That inspired Van Imschoot to come up with a new show with song and sound at its heart.” One of the things she did in preparation was to make field recordings in a zoo, on a motorway, and in a wood. On the basis of those, she and five performers with varied backgrounds – in noise, pop music, etc. – have created a visual and sound production with the voice at its core, in which what we hear repeatedly misleads us.
What Nature Says: 12/2, 20.30, Kaaistudios


Monstrous times
“Action Scénique is a Brussels collective made up of former P.A.R.T.S. students; Claire Croizé and Etienne Guilloteau are members too. Their show is to some extent in the same territory as the David Weber-Krebs one. It is about the uncertainty and confusion generated by our rapidly changing world. This is something you see coming up again and again with lots of artists: the task of coping with that acceleration of history, while still taking decisions and looking for a perspective for action despite the uncertainty. Nada Gambier staged the first instalment in a series of five Monstrous Encounters of Clowns at the Buda in Kortrijk. She has put this short second instalment together with Marco Simoes, specially for Burning Ice.” Facts are treated as fiction, making the confusion even greater.
Monstrous Encounters of Clowns – An Attempt to Swallow the World: 10, 12 & 13/2, 19.00, Kaaistudios


Closing the gap
“There will also be a discussion evening, organised jointly with the Louis Paul Boonkring and MO*Magazine. The discussion will look at inequality and democracy. Why is that included in Burning Ice? Because I believe that, right now, inequality is one of the great obstacles to change in relation to ecological issues. A world in which inequality is growing and democracy is put under pressure makes the transition to a different economic and social system more difficult. Because it is so difficult to convince everyone to work together. A just transition will have to be both ecological and social. When you see that even the economic forum in Davos is dominated by the issue of inequality this year, you realise how precarious things are.”
Let op de kloof! (with Chantal Mouffe, Jan Vranken, and Philippe Van Parijs): 13/2, 19.00, Kaaitheater


BURNING ICE #8 • 9 > 15/2, Kaaitheater, Kaaistudios & Muntcentrum/Centre Monnaie, www.kaaitheater.be