Magical scenes in a mesmerizing miniature theatre. Watch Benjamin Verdonck pull the ropes, setting in motion a continuous stream of images, getting all of us lost inside it. A children’s song, accompanied live by two musicians.

Benjamin Verdonck based Liedje voor Gigi on the work of John Berger, a British art critic who emphasized how art and the artist cannot be seen separated from the age in which they lived and the place they took during their time. In other words: context is very important. Your perspective greatly influences the meaning you attribute to something. Verdonck has an unsurpassed control of perspective with his table-top theatre. By shifting and sliding the framework, he changes the meaning of what you are seeing.

“Nothing is what it seems in this show-box of box of magic: an endless ballroom disappears inside a black hole, a red square takes on the illusion of the big bang. It is a gently flowing stream of colour, shapes and light, that sucks you in like a painting by Mark Rothko. You simply surrender to Verdoncks calming magic.” – Trouw ****

about the maker

Benjamin Verdonck (1972) is an actor, writer, visual artist and theatre maker. He lives and works in Antwerp. He performs both in regular theatres and in public spaces. For theatre venues he makes table-top theatre like notallwhowanderarelost (2014) and Waldeinsamkeit (2018), which both came to Tweetakt. His work in public space includes Bara/ke 2000 (a treehouse in the heart of the city), Hirondelle / Dooi Vogeltje / The Great Swallow (a bird’s nest nestled 100 feet above the ground against an office building). His work of art de finale was presented at Fort Ruigenhoek in 2015: an underwater football pitch with two goals submerged in the moat. His work can be described as an ongoing stream of performances, installations and table-top theatre based on a single question: how to visualise the absence of public debate about the unavoidable changes to our ecosystem. Benjamin has been a maker with Toneelhuis since 2006. His AREN is also coming to this year’s Tweetakt.