During the month of May you can visit les ballets C de la B for the temporary exhibition who wants to dance with me. The international dance company based in Gent welcomes visitors to their home with an exhibition that sits somewhere between open studio and exhibition. For this, the team of les ballets C de la B was assisted by exhibition maker Pierre Muylle. Together they developed a collection of visual work with fragments from their own past, connected themselves to the work of other artists, and drew lines towards the future.
At its core, the exhibition circles around the great absence: the body. The lack of physicality and proximity has been painful, especially for a dance company. Against this, who wants to dance with me places an invitation to the visitor to think together about the things of yesterday for the people of tomorrow. The current team of les ballets C de la B looked back at the past and selected what is dear to them, what has shaped the company, what it wants to carry into the future. It guides the visitor along a path through the history of the dance company. Alongside objects and visual work, testimonies are also part of this and imagination is set to work. In separate rooms, intimate content is interwoven with societal questions that an internationally touring company encounters in its practice, whether or not in dialogue with artists whose work resonates with that of les ballets C de la B.
Throughout the entire process of creating the exhibition, les ballets C de la B was guided by Pierre Muylle (Brugge 2002, SMAK, MADmusée). He has also brought in works by visual artists with whom he sees affinity: Philippe Vandenberg, Stéphane Mandelbaum, Tatjana Gerhard, Henk Visch, Bendt Eyckermans, Terri Bowden. Do their works form a resonance space for les ballets C de la B or is it the other way around?
For the exhibition, les ballets C de la B uses its work spaces. The office spaces in the former maternity building on the Bijlokekaai were tidied up a bit, and the existing furnishings were supplemented with old and new materials. From there, the path runs outside, past an installation in the garden, and further to the neighboring rehearsal studio, where a number of performances are highlighted from a different perspective. Along the way, the architecture duo De Vylder-Vinck, who designed this studio ten years ago, also contribute to the exhibition.
Just as les ballets C de la B cannot be placed under a single label, this exhibition too is a unique collection in line with a house style that can be described as popular, eclectic, and engaged.
WHO WANTS TO DANCE WITH ME
EXPO – les ballets C de la B & Pierre Muylle
In collaboration with STAM
1 to 29 May 2021 | every Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat : 12:00 – 18:00
Bijlokekaai 1, 9000 Gent
Reservation required : www.lesballetscdela.be