Geert Belpaeme is a playwright and performer. He graduated in 2010 from the drama programme at KASK in Ghent where he has also been an artistic teacher and researcher since then. He worked between 2016 and 2020 within KASK & Conservatorium on a research project on playing and meaning-making and is currently coordinator of the research project Reflecting Light, which aims to deepen and fuel the discourse on light and light design within the performing arts. Geert is also the coordinator of the research cluster Negotiating Realities.

As a theater maker, between 2010 and 2020, Geert worked with Mats Van Herreweghe and a changing group of co-creators under the collective name l'hommmm on performances that balance between theater, performance, dance and philosophical experimentation. The work of l'hommmm was characterized by a playfulness and abstraction starting from an uninhibited imagination. In each performance, l'hommmm tried to create a new language, a new way to form meaning and communicate with an audience.  

Between 2015 and 2018, Geert worked with Bosse Provoost, Kobe Chielens and Lieselotte De Keyser under the collective name de polen on the performances Herberg and The Act of Dying.

Since 2020, Geert's work has evolved toward clowning. In his ever hybrid practice, he currently focuses on the power and relevance of clowning as a contemporary practice. This is not about the reproduction of the figure of the clown but about reviving a rich and complex performative practice that held an important place in society until the mid-20th century. For Geert, the clown is a vehicle to materialize human (and non-human) aggression, violence, absurdity and hopelessness. The clown is a post-human performer who lights our existence from its hinges with an unseen playfulness.

In addition to his work as a playwright, Geert has worked as a player, coach and dramaturg with Bosse Provoost, Alexia Leysen, Alexander Vantournhout & Bauke Lievens, Circus Katoen, duo André-Leo, Sinking Sideways, Julian Hetzel...