Installation, no ticket reservation necessary

• Monday 18th March, 15:00–22:00
• Tuesday 19th March, 15:00–22:00
• Thursday 21st March, 15:00–22:00
• Friday 22nd March, 15:00–22:00

​​​​​​​Maybe the two of you know each other,
Or vaguely know each other.
Or, you just don't. 
Either way, you are together now.
Reading this. 

The Meeting focuses on the space between you and the other. When, why and how do we experience a sense of closeness to or distance between each other? 

In this performative installation you are (both) invited to blur the lines between you and the other person, between perceiving and being perceived and between the public and the private domain. The Meeting proposes an alternative way of meeting each other on a more intimate level. Whereas intimacy is often linked to (physical) touch or romance, this work offers an expanded form of intimacy through the interplay of lights, presence/absence, proximity, interactivity and sound.


Intimate distance
on the role of spectatorship in The Meeting
by Celine Daemen

I step into a contemplative space. There is no performer present. No storyline guiding me into another reality. Only the bodies of me and you in a space. In The Meeting, artist Maarten Heijnens invites us to withdraw oneself, take our time, and play. It reminds me somewhat of a funhouse, but more intimate and quieter too. The installation evokes personal associations and thoughts. “How do I appear? Who is looking? How does the other appear to me?”, I ask myself.

In The Meeting, the audience takes center stage. They stand in the middle of a disorienting space and become an object of reflection. The experience is partly determined by the actions of the spectator, but more importantly, they are invited to let who they are become a part of the artwork. Are they shy? Do they know their fellow visitor? Are they playful or deadly serious? Thus, the installation questions the traditional relationship between spectator (subject) and performer (object).

The work builds on a larger movement occurring within the arts. The spectator is emancipating. Whether it is in art performances where the visitor takes an active role and often stands in the midst of the action, or in activist theater that seeks to directly intervene in social conditions, the theater audience increasingly takes on the role of participant and co-creator. This trend also fits within today’s experience driven culture, where undergoing something firsthand has both an attractive and authoritative value.

The way Heijnens approaches his spectator reminds me of the Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who works at the intersection of architecture, technological theater, and performance. An example of this is the work 'Pulse Front' for which Lozano-Hemmer installed large searchlights on the border between Mexico and the United States that can be operated by the visitor. When the light beams from both countries intersect, an audio connection is established with the other side, allowing someone from Mexico to engage in a live conversation with the 'strange other' from the United States. The participatory nature of the work makes the spectator, to a high degree, a co-creator of the artwork. As Lozano-Hemmer writes: "My work engenders a flipping of the traditional subject-object relationship. My work looks at the visitor, instead of the reverse.” 

It is easier said than done: making the spectator themselves the object of reflection. Because what does the directness of this relationship mean for the critical distance that was so important in modern theater practice? The artificial distance of the traditional stage-setup allowed us to critically look at things that might have gone unnoticed in our daily lives. To perceive or reflect on something, we often need distance: we need to stand outside of it. But if the spectator is the object of reflection, how do you allow them to stand outside themselves?

Heijnens' The Meeting interestingly makes the paradoxical movement of a meeting experiential: it is just as outward-facing as it is inward-facing. It reminds me of the  philosophy of the encounter of Charles Pépin: We can only get to know ourselves through our relationships with others. Meeting someone is discovering another perspective, experiencing a change in our relationship to the world. "Since I met you, I am no longer the center of my world. Now I also see everything through your eyes," Pépin writes. That is how Heijnens enables us to stand outside ourselves, to observe ourselves and to reflect upon ourselves and our relationships with others. He allows us to look at ourselves from an intimate distance, through the gaze of the other.

Credits

Tutor: Joachim Robbrecht; External advisor: Lotte van den Berg; Outside eyes: Celine Daemen, Sheeyla Gerard, Olivier Herter, Rita Hoofwijk, Romy Moons, Sonja van Ojen, Wieke van Rosmalen, Erik van de Wijdeven and Eliane Zwart.