Live performances, a lively lobby, bodybuilding questioned and a duet with a rock

M Leuven and STUK are gearing up for the new edition of live arts festival Playground

November 10, 2023

From 16.11 to 19.11.23, M Leuven and STUK are joining forces for the 17th edition of the live arts festival Playground. This one-of-a-kind festival offers a platform to international artists working at the interface between the stage and the visual arts. This makes for an idiosyncratic programme that is sometimes challenging, often funny, but always exciting. This year’s edition is once again being staged across two venues: M and the newly renovated STUK. For four days, immerse yourself in the playful world of the Playground artists. Consult the full programme at playgroundfestival.be.

Bert Cornillie, Alderman for Culture and Chairman of M’s board of directors says: “For 17 years, Playground has been an outstanding platform for multidisciplinary artists. This year, M and STUK have curated yet another surprise-filled programme, once again proving that they are open to experimentation and reflection. Some of the performances are interactive, such as those by Ariane Loze and Elize Charcosset. Which means that, as a visitor, you certainly don’t have to stand on the sidelines: you can get close to the artists and play along with them, just like you would in a real playground.”

Eva Wittocx, Head of the Contemporary Art Department at M and co-curator of Playground continues: “M and STUK are painting a picture of the contemporary live arts landscape, in all its diversity. The participating artists are presenting very different works, all with individual focuses. From our own region, for example, we have programmed Judith Van Oeckel, who seeks ways to preserve a tangible artistic practice like dance. Dimitri Vangrunderbeek will lay a carpet of white sand and yellow loam in M’s lobby during Playground. A landscape is created before the visitor’s eyes, which will be activated, disturbed and finally demolished. Moreover, we're showing four films by choreographer and danser Meg Stuart from 2020, and her new film – Shelf Life (2023) – will have its Belgian premiere at M.”

Steven Vandervelden, general and artistic director at STUK and co-curator of Playground adds: “Playground is a sanctuary for artists who step off the well-trodden paths. You will see artistic work in the festival that does not always easily find a stage. This year, a number of Belgian premieres will be held in both STUK and M across the four days of the festival. Including for Portuguese artist Luísa Saraiva, for example, and her performance around singing and femininity. THING by Charlotte Bouckaert, an installation in movement, a choreography of banal objects and a body, will also debut at Playground.”

This year, a symposium on caring for artists, makers, performers, audiences and participants is also part of the Playground programme. On 17.11, a group of international curators, programmers and artists will focus on the interaction between performance, visual art institutions and museums during two roundtable discussions. Participants in these (English-language) talks include Rosalie Doubal, senior curator of international art at London’s Tate Modern, and US artist Emily Mast, whose performance IFIF will have its Belgian premiere at M during the festival. The first roundtable discussion, ‘Lost and found in translation’, zooms in on the contrasts, similarities and cross-pollinations between a range of disciplines. The second roundtable, ‘Caring for bodies’, explores the difference between dealing with people in a museum as opposed to artworks. Registration is compulsory.

The full list of participating artists

Judith Van Oeckel, Alice Theobald, Jivan van der Ende, Elize Charcosset, Meg Stuart, Wim De Pauw, Manuel Groothuysen & Diane Mahín, Ariane Loze, Emily Mast, Agnès Geoffray, Domingo, Catleen Van Langendonck, buren (Oshin Albrecht & Melissa Mabesoone), Luísa Saraiva, Dimitri Vangrunderbeek, Charlotte Bouckaert, Espen Hjort & Mees Borgman

Programme highlights

Luísa Saraiva – Tirana

Tirana is an immersive sound choreography that explores the physical aspects of singing, the air within a body and the limits of the female voice. Luísa Saraiva addresses gender issues through the production and interpretation of sound. The artist found inspiration in Portuguese folk songs and the female polyphonic repertoire. The result is a particularly physical experience.

STUK Labozaal | performance | Belgian premiere

Emily Mast – IFIF

During the lockdown, Emily Mast devised a method to frame boundaries around permission and consent using hypnosis, tantra, movement and emotional attunement, amongst other methods. In Playground, she presents IFIF, a secular group ritual in the form of a game that involves chance, dance and trance.

M room 1.F | performance | Belgian premiere

Buren – shoe/farm

For shoe/farm, buren once again explores social roles and power relations. This time, they depart from their own roots: a farm in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and a shoe shop on the Belgian coast. They link their personal experiences to broader social issues around production processes, working conditions and consumerism.

STUK Studio | performance

Jivan van der Ende – Exercises in scenography

What place does a muscular body have in a patriarchal society? Jivan van der Ende’s performance explores this very question. Since 2021, she has been working on the creation of a dialogue between bodybuilders and her queer self. With this project, she explores how capitalist society and its institutions see the body as a commodity. They project fear and an oppressive sexism.

M room 1.E | installation | performance

Espen Hjort & Mees Borgman/Landmarks – Stonework

Stonework is a physical and musical duet between performer Mees Borgman and a stone from the mountainous Hallingskarvet region in Norway. The performance is a search for a radical equivalence between man and stone. How do you communicate with a stone? What can we mean to the stone? And what memories or fantasies might a stone have?

STUK Labozaal | performance | Belgian premiere

Judith Van Oeckel – All She Wants to Do Is Dance

Chronic migraines prevent Leuven-based Judith Van Oeckel from performing as a dancer. Within her practice, she explores the limitations of her body as well as ways to preserve her movements. She creates short micro-choreographies, which she films and transcribes. This means, in turn, they can be acquired or passed on.

M room 1.C | installation | performance