Whatchamacallit is a performance exhibition of people inspired by 19th century freak shows. No freaks as sensation or billboard, no entertainment or tricks, but four performers who use their bodies as art objects, viewing objects, objects of power and of desire. In a time of constant digital self-profiling, we ask ourselves: how do we use and deploy our bodies to be loved or to succeed? How do we deal with the objectification of our bodies and how does it affect us as human beings?

The theatre is transformed into a museum setting: a landscape of different installations of bodies, sound boxes and screens. No classical theatre-setting. You choose who you want to watch, like a kind of live Instagram.

The four performers pose their divergent bodies. Every ‘perfect’ corner of their bodies is shown. Every inch of skin is being stretched, poked and shaken, including their excess skin, rolls of fat and crow’s feet.
The body is the essence, technique is the extension. Through TV screens and sound boxes connected to the performers, you discover the figurative insides of their daily lives and bodies. We hear their guilty pleasures, desires, turn offs and confrontations.

In whatchamacallit we experience the strong urge to expose fragility and what we normally want to hide. With humour and rawness, this performance searches for the ultimate intimacy and humanity between performers and audience. The performance plays on the exciting balance between being at ease and the question ” may I roll my eyes over your body?”

About the creators
Charlotte Goesaert (1987) is a Belgian choreographer, dancer and performer.
After graduating from the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg in 2009, she continued to live in the Netherlands but worked internationally.
In 2022-2023 she created the performance whatchamacallit, a performance exhibition by a diverse cast of five actors. “whatchamacallit reveals the seeds of my artistic vision for the future: how I inject everyday life into my work; how I experiment formally for each concept (such as an exhibition here); how I connect dance and video; how I work socially interactively with professionals, non-professionals and a diverse cast; how I immerse myself in topics that society would rather ignore.”