Continuum
Johannes Bellinkx (Belgium)
| Oct 14 Friday | 14+16+18+21h | Savarin Riding School | ||
| Oct 15 Saturday | 14+16+18+21h | Savarin Riding School |
A continuum is a continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Continuum is an immersive installation in which everything can be seen as one big, uninterrupted movement. A movement that is much greater than our human existence, one that begins and ends far outside our usual boundaries. Or perhaps it never ends?
Once you step inside, you leave behind reality as you know it and let yourself be carried off into another dimension. When moving, you look at the space, which is in constant motion. This experience of light, sound, and movement speaks to all the sense and erases the difference between what you see, hear, and feel. It is an experience that shows us that everything happens just as it happens. In his art, Johannes Bellinkx explores the limits of perception. He seeks to disrupt Cartesian Enlightenment thinking (cogito ergo sum), which – consciously and unconsciously – permeates our lives. He questions the manner in which we perceive the world around us and how this manner of perception literally and figuratively determines our own image. His performances are experiences that speak to and confuse our senses to make room for new perspectives.
Viewers move about a space in a small train, their view limited by a frame as if they have become a moving camera. Through this frame, they see a space that is in motion and is constantly changing. This space is made up of a giant white paper canvas, the installation’s central element, which can be variously turned and deformed. The combination of movement, the constantly changing canvas, and the light play forces viewers to abandon their reference framework. What begins as a highly disorienting experience can, once you abandon old systems of reference, be transformed into a space for something new and can make you a part of the never-ending motion.
Johannes Bellinkx (Belgium, 1978) studied social geography at the University of Amsterdam and movement education at the city’s Academy of Theatre and Dance. While at the theater academy, he was quickly drawn to creating and developing his own independent work, in which he questions our systems of perception and the (re)construction of our surroundings in our brain. The art of Johannes Bellinkx balances between performance, live film, visual art, and sound art. He tries to create experiences that manifest a philosophical, political, or cultural point of view. In order to address all the senses, Bellinkx collaborates with artists from various different fields.
Bellinkx currently lives and works in Amsterdam. In addition to his artistic practice, he is often asked to provide artistic consultancy, he mentors students, and he organizes art projects at various academies in the Netherlands and abroad. He makes his art in collaboration with SoAP Maastricht, C-Takt, and Feikes Huis, and he is supported by the Dutch Performing Arts Fund (FPK) and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), among others.
Koncept a režie: Johannes Bellinkx
Produkce: SoAP Maastricht
Koprodukce: Feikes Huis Amsterdam, C-Takt Neerpelt/Genk
Umělecká spolupráce, dramaturgie: Tamar Blom
Umělecká spolupráce, kompozice: Dennis van Tilburg
Světelný design: Grisha Rungen, Neal Groot
Producent: Jakob Proyer
Instalace: Merijn Versnel, Guido Bevers and Merel Kamp (sacs)
