23.11.24, 10:00, On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors - 5, Exercising Fragility in Theatres and Beyond

With contributions by Augusto Corrieri, Katja Dreyer, Nikolaus Gansterer, Yannick Guédon, Guy Gypens, Antoine Pickels, Julie Sermon, Christel Stalpaert and May Abnet, Julien Bruneau, Alondra Castellanos Arreola, Zoë Demoustier and Irena Radmanovic as the Guardians of Sleep

On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors is a series of performance-conferences exploring how the performing arts—their forms, research, and discourses—are being challenged by climate emergency.

This fifth edition marks the conclusion of David Weber-Krebs' PhD in the Arts, Exercising Fragility in Theatres and Beyond, a journey he embarked on six years ago. During this time, the world has experienced significant upheavals, most notably a pandemic that forced theatres to close, only to reopen in a profoundly altered state. This moment revealed new vulnerabilities, as an invisible airborne threat made humans both dangerous to, and fragile toward, one another. This disruption not only reshaped human relationships but also affected cultural institutions at their core.

This edition of On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors offers a space where artistic propositions respond to theoretical perspectives, centering fragility on stage and reflecting on what it means for our presence in the world and our ecological responsibilities.

Key contributors include Julie Sermon, author of the acclaimed Morts ou vifs, pour une écologie des arts vivants, and Augusto Corrieri, artist, scholar and magician, whose work bridges performance, art, and ecology and author of the sensational In Place of a Show: What Happens Inside Theatres When Nothing is Happening.

Composer and singer Yannick Guédon will present an exploration of voice, unfolding subtle variations of a single note, to explore the mobility and fragility of sound.

In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, Katja Dreyer, Antoine Pickels, and Christel Stalpaert imagined what their first post-lockdown theatre experience might be. Now, in 2024, they revisit and reflect on those imaginings.

The day will conclude with a special reprise of The Guardians of Sleep (2017). While sleeping, the human body is vulnerable. A feeling of security and peace helps us every night to withdraw from the world. But what if the social protection as we know it, suddenly  falls apart?

• Concept & curation: David Weber-Krebs
• production: Emma Verbeek, Emilie Legrand
• co-production: Outline and KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT – Howest)
• Supported by Flanders State of the Art

David Weber-Krebs is affiliated as an artistic researcher to KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and howest. The research project Exercising Fragility in Theatres and Beyond, is financed by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.