(over)protection Lab

8 September 2017 — 17 September 2017
Cultuurcentrum Hasselt vzw
  • Friday 8 September 10:00

The second PUSH Lab, an 8-day residential laboratory focusing on the topic of (over)protection was led by our Belgian partner who manages the Cultural Centre and Krokus Festival in Hasselt. The lab took place from 8 - 17 September 2017.

The 14 selected artists first met in the cultural centre on their first day, you can find out more about them in our Lab film (by Geraldine Heaney):

(over)protection Lab - PUSH from PUSH EU on Vimeo.

Getting to know each other over dinner, they all went to the marvelous art centre of Dommelhof, up in  the north in the Limburg province. On Saturday morning the artists and lab leader actress Sara Vertongen were ready for an intense weekend of reflection, discussions, a lecture by pedagogue Martin Van Rooijen about responsible children's play and risky walks in cities and an intense workshop by actor Jef Van Gestel.

After a free Monday, the group met again in Hasselt and was introduced to second lab leader, choreographer Jasper Dzuki Jelen. All of them spent five intense days of physical workshops, discussions and talks and another inspiring lecture by Flemish pedagogue Bruno de Bruyckere.

More inspiration came from the The100Hands performance, 25Feet. After some great music shows by Chantal Acda and Echo Collective, all artists explored the city on risky situations and prepared their artistic interventions on Saturday, which were also attended by all PUSH partners. The PUSH lab on (over)protection deeply researched this theme in many ways (education, society, urbanization, geography, ethnics, gender) and transferred these new insights into  challenging artistic languages.

It was a very inspringing time, as you can see from the images below! 


Day 7 – collage A

Day 7 – collage B

Day 7 – collage C

Day 7 – collage D

'We want to explore themes such as unsupervised time, danger zones, safety zones, falls and cuts. We want to understand the risk radar: where is the danger, what is the danger, how can we artistically play with it? Transform it in artistic concepts? Look at different relations between artists, audience and accidental passers-by.'

The Lab was led by Sara Vertongen and Jasper Dzuki Jelen.