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A small glass booth in the middle of the city displays a different scene each day; images we usually do not encounter in the public domain. As rare relics, people are installed behind soundproof glass. With the series of ten disconcerting images, Verhoeven hopes to expose our collective unease. The accompanying texts describe the unsettling images in a business-like manner, exemplifying the DNA of our time.
Unsuspecting passers-by are encouraged by the business-like presentation to determine their position in relation to these controversial images. Why are some images considered tainted when they were tolerated just twenty years ago? Have we become less malleable as species? Or have we simply lost our naive political correctness? Is it good that our children do not see certain things, or have we gone to the extremes in our drive to protect?
18.06. / “Ceci n'est pas de l'art”
19.06. / “Ceci n'est pas une mere”
20.06. / “Ceci n'est pas de l'amour”
21.06. / “Ceci n'est pas le futur”
22.06. / “Ceci n'est pas de l'histoire”
23.06. / “Ceci n'est pas la nature”
24.06. / “Ceci n'est pas notre desir”
25.06. / “Ceci n'est pas notre peur”
DRIES VERHOEVEN is a theatre maker and visual artist.
Dries Verhoeven creates installations, performances and happenings in museums, on location and in the public spaces of cities. On the boundary between performance and installation art, he critically evaluates the relationships between the spectators, performers, everyday reality and art. The spectator is directly involved in the work or given the opportunity to steer his or her own experiences.
In his work, Verhoeven highlights aspects of the common social reality in which we live. He is not concerned with conveying a statement about reality, but mainly about unbalancing the visitor in order to evoke a shared vulnerability between the viewer and the viewed work. With gestures, which radically affect the public order of everyday life, he hopes to sow the seeds of doubt about the systems that inconspicuously influence our thoughts and actions. In recent years, the current crisis mind-set and the influence of digital media on interpersonal relationships in particular have formed the basis for his projects.
concept: Dries Verhoeven
artistic assistance: Lenne Koning with the cooperation of a great number of performers
production: Saskia Schoenmaker
artistic assistance: Ilon Lodewijks
technician Roel Evenhuis
sound: Koen Keevel
photography: Willem Popelier and Volker Schimkus
video: Thorsten Alofs
in collaboration with numerous perfomersCeci n’est pas… was co-commissioned by SPRING Festival Utrecht and developed within the context of “Second Cities – Performing Cities”