Pieterjan Ginckels — The Word

‘Private Investigations: A focus on intimate odysseys’ is an extravagant, eleven-and-a-half week-long celebration of the beauty of second-hand and recycled objects, hosted by the Beursschouwburg. Last weekend’s opening was a heady mix of live performance, music, workshops, and installations.

The visual highlight for many will no doubt be wunderkind Pieterjan Ginckels’ Human Disco Bong, an enormous, glittering structure made from over 100 bicycle helmets and oodles of reflective mirror. The museum-scale velodrome and performances got Ginckels nominated for 2011’s Young Belgian Painters Award. Human Disco Bong was first featured in the Beursschouwburg ‘RollerMadness’ and the piece will now be an ‘art work in residence’.

Each piece or performance is based around the artist’s personal recollections: Els Viaene’s snaking wooden sculpture filled with murky water represents her own route through the Amazon rainforest. Documented using Sat Nav, attendees dip special microphones into the water and trail them along the length of the pond-like sculpture to hear distinctive sounds of the rainforest alongside mysterious radio frequencies. Peter Lenaerts audiovisual project also draws inspiration and material from further afield; his Sonic Adventures uses recordings made in the Australian desert, and will be making the Beursschouwburg its home for two months. Lenaerts plans on taking his sound adventuring to the next level with his project micro, in which he’ll turn the Beursschouwburg itself into a massive musical instrument.

‘Macxorciste’ sees Philip Beloul, a French dancer, performer, and tech guru, dole out advice on useful tricks for iPhones, and workshops on how to hack PCs and turn them into Macs.

Private Investigations’ programme was put together by Tom Bonte, Helena Kritis and Vincent Tetaert and the opening featured music by Flying Horseman and Imaginary Family. Guests were also treated to films by Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, of ‘Because We Are Visual’ fame,Britt Hatzius re-mastering of her father’s footage of himself riding a unicycle in Afghanistan, as well as an unwanted Christmas present exchange.

Still to look forward to is a conference on intellectual property and spiritual theatre fromFlorentina Holzinger and Vincent Riebeek, alongside the ongoing installations.