The performance Act of Living-Catalogue of Failure was one of the highlights of this years Something Raw festival.
As a spectator one laughs, but the laugh fades quickly. In fact it is not funny or even silly but rather sad and thought provoking. The performance is consistent and true to its subject matter that keeps popping up in the finely tuned details of physicality and props. Not over the top but rather right to the point Nada Gambier manages to convey the solitude of social failure and the difficulty of belonging.
Leonie Kuipers 2.3 2007 excerpt from her review ‘Think like a winner and you will become one’
Act of Living- Catalogue of Failure at the Something Raw festival in Amsterdam (NL)
In Act of Living- Catalogue of Failure (2005-2006) Nada Gambier, Ugo Dehaes and Kwint Manshoven embark on a journey trying hard to connect with each other, only to realize that in life we remain utterly alone. With their lack of enthusiasm and a monotony that kills born out of numerous errors, they travel through the land of social humiliation and face the horror of forced joy and desperate interactions in order to fit in somewhere, eventually landing on a post-paradise planet, alone but together.
Concept and direction by: Nada Gambier
Made and performed with: Ugo Dehaes and Kwint Manshoven
Light design by: Peter de Goy
Produced by: wp Zimmer, Antwerp (BE)
Co-produced by: Dans in Limburg (BE)
Subsidized by: the City of Antwerp (BE) and the Flemish Ministry of Culture (BE)
With the support of: Summerstudios, Brussels (BE), Vooruit, Ghent (BE) and the Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE)
Act of living – Catalogue of failure has been presented in Belgium: CC Berchem, Vooruit (Ghent), De Velinx (Tongeren)
The Netherlands: Brakke Grond / Something Raw Festival (Amsterdam)
Poland: Stary Browar Art Centre (Poznan)
For more information and a recording of the work please send a mail to nada@nadagambier.be
For up-coming dates check out the AGENDA
© Bart Grietens 2006