A Matter of Animated Mountain

Collaboration with Gosie Vervloessem at workspacebrussels (2017)

- Based on a 17th century text about the dissection of an elephant in Dublin, we explored the inside of a big animal like Alice(s) in wonderland. This particular elephant was dissected by candlelight and that is exactely how we are worked – guided by a shimmering flame, fully exposed to external phenomena. We became particularly interested in the digestive tract. How do we explore and devour the world? Gaston Bachelard and his text about the story of Jonah, caught up in a whale was of great inspiration. We met real elephants and stuffed ones. An animal that arrives at the taxidermy workhsop in parts is put back together into one piece. While giving us these insights, the taxidermist was stuffing her own cat. The smell made us dizzy. We thought about scale and the perception of time in scale models. A elephant is always drawn to a smaller scale then it actually is, a flea larger. Along a path of associations we constructed a digestive tract that filled a room and lodged in the audience and together we got lost between the stomach and intestines.

concept & performance; Gosie Vervloessem & Frances Adair Mckenzie – artistic assistance Jasper Delbecke – in the framework of the exchange project Co[labo]rations curated by Quentin Palmaerts – coproduction workspacebrussels (Brussels), Phenomena festival (Quebec), Studio 303 (Montréal) - with the support of: FWB, Délégation générale du Québec à Bruxelles, WP Zimmer