Marc Vanrunxt / Kunst/Werk & ChampdAction - Pink & Orange

Residency leading to the première of Pink & Orange, the new creation by Kunst/Werk in collaboration with ChampdAction.

Choreographer and dancer Marc Vanrunxt is fascinated by the Judson Memorial Church’s intense collaborations and the triumvirate of John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Their innovative approach to music, form and movement, and especially their interaction, has since guided generations of artists. In the same vein and based on John Cage’s work, Vanrunxt’s Pink & Orange is a new collaboration with Antwerp’s ChampdAction interdisciplinary platform for new music. Pianist Yutaka Oya and organist Iris Eysermans join longtime artistic collaborators and performers Peter Savel, Igor Shyshko and Lise Vachon in the studio.

Pink & Orange – a reference to an Ellsworth Kelly painting – explores new relationships and communication between unexpected things. What is between pink and orange? What is the sum of Cage multiplied by Cage? What does a cactus sound like?

choreography Marc Vanrunxt in collaboration with Igor Shyshko, Peter Savel & Lise Vachon
music John Cage (Organ2 / ASLSP (1987), Sonatas & Interludes (1946-1948)
musicians Yutaka Oya, Iris Eysermans (ChampdAction)
lighting Stef Alleweireldt
scenography Tom Volkaert
production Kunst/Werk & ChampdAction
with the support of the Flemish Government

Video portrait of the residency for Pink & Orange

Yutaka Oya is pianist of many talents. Next to the large classical and romantic repertoire, he has performed creations from all over the world, be it chamber music or piano solo, be it European or Japanese composers. He performed with various Belgian and international symphonic orchestras and ensembles and has been a ChampdAction pianist for years. He took part in dozens of album recordings, and performed solo recitals and chamber music all around the world.

Iris Eysermans, the organist who will perform the Organ2/ASLSP composition, is part of the duo 64-Feest and is a regular guest of ChampdAction. The organ has not yet found its place in the world of new music, but 64-Feet tries to change that by bringing a surprinsing programme of old and new music, incorporating new technology, live electronics, synths and electronic organs.

Marc Vanrunxt is choreographer, dancer and artistic director of Kunst/Werk. He investigates the borders of dance as a medium and choreography as a language, taking into account the possibilities of the body. His work tries to re-define terms like time, space, energy and presence. Vanrunxt's oeuvre works with oppositions such as visible/invisible and tangible/elusive. His artistic vocabulary has its roots in the punk movement and abstract expressionism.

Peter Savel is one of Kunst/Werk's sattelites. After his studies, he started working as a dancer for the choreographer Pierre Droulers. He danced in the re-runs of De l’air et du vent (2011) and the creation Soleils (2012). In mei 2013 he started collaborating with choreographer Salva Sanchis, dancing in his creations The Organ Project (2008), The Phantom Layer (2013), Islands (2014) and Radical Light (2016), the latter still being performed in venues across Europe. In 2016 he started working as dancer-creater with Marc Vanrunxt. Peter danced in his performances Prototype (2017) and Drawings (2019) with Slagwerk den Haag.

Igor Shyshko is another of Kunst/Werk’s satellites. Igor studied at the dance department for the Belarusian University of Culture. After four years of studies there, he started at the Brussels-based dance school P.A.R.T.S., graduating in 2000 and dancing in the first creation of Akram Khan Rush in the same year. That fall onwards, he became a Rosas dancer. IN 2010 he left his full-time job at Rosas and started freelancing. In the following years, he worked with choreographers like Arco Renz en Marc Vanrunxt. During this search for a personal dance language and a form for his own choreography, he and Moya Michael created Darling in 2014. In the 19-20 season, Igor worked with Tale Dolven on the new dance creation PrecarryUs.

Lise Vachon is another of Kunst/Werk’s satellites. Lise is a dancer and choreographer from Canada, living in Brussels since 1997, when she started studying at P.A.R.T.S. During her career as a dancer of choreographic assistant, she worked with, among others, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Arco Renz, Michèle Noiret, Marc Vanrunxt (a.o. the creation Only in 2012) and Fré Werbrouck. She also worked on several operas at De Munt and abroad, together with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. At the moment she works at PA.R.T.S. as a pedagogic coördinator for the students, following up on their evolution, courses, workshops and evaluations. With Vanrunxt, Lise made the creations Only in 2012, Prototype in 2017 and Drawings in 2019.

Tom Volkaert is a visual artist working from Antwerp. Tom believes in coïncidence. Even though detailed recipes exist for glazing ceramics in the oven, Tom refuses to use them, letting a metaphorical, invisible warm hand cast his sculptures in the oven. Whatever goes 'wrong', whatever crack or hole originates, he considers them an added value. He also uses ready-mades or found objects in his sculptures as a way to stay connected with his local environment. Often reusing broken pieces of earlier works, he re-connects with his own art and presents himself as an artist that way. In a certain sense, all of his works are re-shaped self-portraits.