DasArts / Master of Theatre

Block 27
The Glamour of Violence

Block 27 commenced on 7 September 2007 and ended on 23 November 2007.
The semester commenced on 1 September 2007 and ended on 29 February 2008.

Mentor to the Block 27 participants
Boris Gerrets (NL) visual artist, filmmaker, editor

About the Block

In evolutionary prehistory, consciousness emerged as a side effect of language.
Today it is a by-product of the media.
John Gray

Violence confronts us with death, death confronts us with life, and life in turn confronts us with the idea of our own being, what it means to be human. That is the core question of this artistic adventure we engaged in during Block 27.

As a phenomenon, the glamour of violence exploits the hidden instincts, fantasies, dreams and nightmares that reside in the substrata of our consciousness – deep existential feelings, many of which are too monstrous in their cruelty to be openly expressed. Perhaps they are remnants of an earlier time in our evolutionary process, like a kind of mental appendix to our consciousness. Perhaps they are inherently part of our survival and reproductive instincts – I don’t know. I am neither a psychologist nor a behavioural scientist. But what I do know is that the only time we can even remotely try to understand this repressed world of dark feelings is when we project them into the space of art, which – I would argue – is in itself a gesture of compassion.

However, it would be far too simple to see art as merely a parallel mental ‘fantasy’ world, a safe area for the sublimation of negative psychic energy into more positive channels. Art, too, is of this world, existing right in the midst of the turbulence of ideological and religious interpretations of what constitutes reality – and what is admissible to it. I am not even talking about outright censorship. I am talking about what we allow ourselves to conceive, inside our minds.

In this block we tried to push back the limits, just like some of the films that are featured here. Among them will be films that are masterpieces of world cinema. Others may be ethically questionable, in bad taste or extremely cruel. But keep in mind that they are hardly as questionable, in bad taste or cruel as life itself can be. Emerging from the many perspectives on violence and the many ethical, philosophical and behavioural concerns is one quintessential question; it is a question we dread to ask: is violence the thing that makes us human?

Boris Gerrets, mentor of Block 27

Participants Block 27

Ivo Dimchev (BG) ;Steven de Jong (NL); Kaisu Koski (FI); Cille Lansade (DK/F); Linda Molenaar (NL); José Manuel Mora Ortiz aka Chico (E); Esther Mugambi (AUS); Stephanie Pan (USA); Jochen Stechmann (D)

Guest teachers Block 27

Franko B (GB); Martin Barker (GB); Matthijs Bouw (NL) ; Cyrus Frisch (NL); Mathilde ter Heijne (NL/D); Chris Keulemans (NL); Nikolai Khalezin (BLR); Natalia Kolyada (BLR); Ilona Lente (NL); Midori (USA/J); Greg Marinovich (ZA); Martin de Ronde (NL); Vladimir Shcherban (BLR); Oleg Shafranov (BLR); Borut Separovic (NL/HR); Vital Stahievitch (BLR); Karin Spaink (NL)

Week by Week

Week 1: 17 - 21 September 2007

Introduction to the theme of the Block by Boris Gerrets and the DasArts staff. On17 September, the participants made a collective visit to the Final Project ‘Bloody World Theory [Ever In Progress]’ by Tashi Iwaoka. On 18 September, guest teacher Vital Stahievitch gave a presentation and concert in the RitSael at DasArts.

As is tradition within DasArts, the first week took place on location. It was our plan to do a workshop with the Free Theatre of Minsk, a Belarusian independent theatre company that works with underground performances in private houses to protest against ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’...

The Glamour of Violence – In Transit – Minsk, Belarus – Warszawa, Polska

Police Special Forces stormed the performance of a play by the underground theatre group The Free Theatre of Minsk in Belarus on Wednesday 22 August and arrested 50 people. Members of the theatre were about to begin a performance of ‘Eleven Vests’ by Edward Bond at a house in a Minsk suburb on Wednesday when armed officers from the Omon unit entered the building and detained everyone present. The actors, performers and spectators were taken by bus to a police station, but released three hours later.

Among the arrested spectators were Boris Gerrets (mentor for Block 27) and Mark Jansen (DasArts production manager), who were preparing a workshop with The Free Theatre of Minsk and the Block 27 participants for September. On Wednesday 19 September, one day before the scheduled departure to Belarus, the Belarusian Embassy in The Hague notified DasArts that all visas for a stay in Minsk were denied.

For this reason the whole group of DasArts participants, mentor and staff members went by train on 20 September 2007 to Warsaw. Originally this was never meant to be the destination, but because the Free Theatre Group is under heavy scrutiny by the local KGB, Warsaw was the closest destination in Europe to Minsk. Nikolai Khalezin, Vladimir Shcherban, Oleg Shafranov and Natalia Kolyada, members of the Free Theatre of Minsk, joined the DasArtists in Warsaw, where they worked together for a week.

Week 2: 24 - 30 September 2007

Stay in Warsaw.

– The participants and staff of DasArts visited the concentration camp of Majdanek.
– In Warsaw they found a working space in the town’s Cultural Palace: the building is a present from the Soviet Union to Poland. It’s a Stalinist monument. Today, in 2007, ‘Goodbye Lenin’ is the context. But where to? The EU and MacDonald’s and pizzas everywhere? It’s another time.... But the participants’ cultural reference was the pop culture of the 80s: at night they sang Michael Jackson songs.
– The participants held a political group demonstration at a subway station in Warsaw, carrying banners and yelling slogans about 'The Right To Scream'.
– In response to an assignment of the Free Theatre of Minsk, the participants recorded and edited the film ‘Belarus Syndrome’ (17 min) on location in Theatr Dramatyczny. Parallel to this, they worked on personal assignments about their individual fears and feelings of happiness, etc.

Week 3: 1 - 5 October 2007

Continuation of the thematic programme in Amsterdam. The participants started with training in boxing by Ilona Lente in the Ritsael at DasArts. Boxing was one of the recurring routines of this Block. The week ended with internal individual presentations of short videos with the theme of ‘Solitude’.

Week 4: 8 - 12 October 2007

During this week, Jochen Stechmann gave training in Pilates to his fellow participants in the morning. The rest of the week a workshop by guest teacher/war photographer Greg Marinovich took place.

On 12 October 2007, Open Lab 145 took place: ‘How do our senses relate to our sense in a senseless world?’ Taking stock at the almost halfway mark of our thematic Block 27, DasArts presented the participants’ first public performative answers to the theme ‘The Glamour of Violence’.

Week 5: 15 - 20 October 2007

Guest teachers: Karin Spaink and Chris Keulemans. The lectures in this week focussed on the perspective of horror in movies and the use of fear and the danger of outer space (or more recently cyberspace) in these films.

Week 6: 22 - 26 October 2007

Residency by guest teacher/visual artist Franko B. Franko showed a selection of films and gave a lecture about his own work. The participants were given individual assignments resulting in internal presentations on 24 October.

Week 7: 29 October - 2 November 2007

Guest teacher Cyrus Frisch (NL) gave a three-day workshop; Borut Separovic (NL/HR) gave a lecture. A week with personal assignments and improvisations. On 2 November the participants gave a concert, an evening of musical entertainment entitled ‘Glamour!’

Week 8: 5 - 10 November 2007

Workshops and lectures with guest teachers Matttijs Bouw (NL), Martin de Ronde (NL), Martin Barker (GB) and Mathilde ter Heijne (NL/D).

Week 9: 8 - 17 November 2007

Workshop with guest artist Midori (USA/J). On 17 November an Open Lab was scheduled, with performative responses by the participants to the workshop by Midori and a performance by Midori and Kumi.

Week 10: 19 - 23 November 2007

Open Lab 147 & Open Lab 148.Two evenings with presentations by DasArts Block 27 ‘The Glamour of Violence’ participants in response to the 10 week programme of thematic Block 27.

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