Playground 2024: theatre, dance, or an exhibition after all?

Playground 2024

Theatre, dance, or an exhibition after all?

Imagine: you’re walking through the museum. In amongst medieval wooden statues you see dancers making small, almost imperceptible movements. In other rooms you view an installation, or witness a live performance. In the evening you go to the theatre, where you walk across the stage and weave through scenery and actors. Do you have to take a seat in the auditorium? How long will you stay? Is this theatre, dance, or an exhibition after all?

A journey of discovery through the borderlands of visual art, theatre, dance, film and other art disciplines: it must be Playground. The four-day interdisciplinary festival is being staged for the 18th time this autumn.

Playground is a collaboration between M and STUK. It incorporates existing performances and new projects, from both talented rising stars and artists that we have been following for some time. They break codes, structures, habits and expectations, and encourage you to step outside your comfort zone. What do we have to look forward to this year?

An Verstraete

‘Holly in het museum’

For Playground, writer and theatre-maker An Verstraete will be installing her studio in M’s entrance hall. Throughout the day, she will draw inspiration from what she sees and hears in these surroundings. Via a fictitious character, Holly, she will work on a ‘table theatre’: a kind of miniature puppet theatre with cheerful figures which she makes out of magazine clippings and then mounts on cocktail sticks. Sometimes the figures are incorporated into a story, and sometimes they simply serve as a backdrop. Over the course of the day, she works towards a series of short performances, so that her work constantly keeps moving.

Verstraete’s visual language is deceptively simple, but it is underpinned by elaborate mental processes. She reacts to her environment with enigmatic images, bridging the gap between art and the viewer.

An Verstraete op residentie in CC De Werf, Aalst. — An Verstraete op residentie in CC De Werf, Aalst © Simon Allemeersch

Linda Jasmin Mayer

‘Dove fermarsi?’

In a video, the Italian artist Linda Jasmin Mayer investigates the interaction between humans and nature. ‘Dove fermarsi?’ (‘Where do you stop?’) features seven hybrid creatures, half-human and half-bird, wandering through diverse landscapes. They all combine ‘normal’ human clothes with the mask of a specific bird species, meticulously constructed by set designer Andrea Ferri. Studies of these species also inform their behaviour.

The bird-people migrate through natural landscapes that have been altered by human interventions – indeed, each of the seven bird species is threatened with extinction. They are imprisoned between two worlds, and belong to neither. Their destination is also uncertain.

At Playground we both screen the video and exhibit the bird masks at M. In addition, the hybrid figures will walk through the museum at various points.

Film still uit ‘Dove fermarsi’, Linda Jasmin Mayer, 2023, beeldrechten: Lina Jasmin Mayer

Also at Playground in M

As part of his solo exhibition at M, Peter Morrens presents a live musical installation together with Lionel Marchetti and Jérôme Noetinger, in which they improvise with sound collages.

An intimate performance by Jean-Charles de Quillacq centres on the reciprocity between artist and visitor. In exchange for the artist’s comprehensive availability, the visitor leaves behind a plaster cast of their nose.

In the buildings around M, Coraline Guilbeau makes you look at life in the city in a new way.

‘A Catalogue of Steps’ is a long-running performance and research project from the American choreographer and dancer DD Dorvillier. During Playground, visitors can select from the choreographic fragments that make up the piece.

'A Catalogue of Steps', DD Dorvillier, foto: Ian Douglas

‘Extérieur. Été.’ Coraline Guilbeau, 2021 © Lola Pertsowsky, beeldrechten: Coraline Guilbeau

Jérôme Noetinger tijdens Lokal Harmonie in Duisburg, 2016 © Christian Gnass

View of the performance 'The Stand-In', Jean-Charles de Quillacq, Frac Bretagne, 2018 © Valentin Merz | Biennale de Rennes

Playground 2021 — © M Leuven, foto: Robin Zenner

Playground Festival

14.11 - 17.11.24

Met Ferenc Balcaen, Raven Chacon, Yael Davids, Jean-Charles de Quillacq, DD Dorvillier, Coraline Guilbeau, Reyhan Lál, Violaine Lochu, Linda Jasmin Mayer, Peter Morrens en Lionel Marchetti en Jérôme Noetinger, Diederik Peeters, Bosse Provoost & Ezra Veldhuis, Anthony van Gog, An Verstraete, BREAKFASTCLUB

More info