Wild Card residency Benjamin Vandewalle & Ayelet Yekutiel at Riksteatern

Upon recommendation by the co-organizer workspacebrussels, Cullberg Ballet invited Benjamin Vandewalle (BE), dancer/ choreographer and Ayelet Yekutiel (IL) dancer/ choreographer for a one week research residency without the pressure of production at Cullberg Ballets location in the production house of Riksteatern (Swedish National Touring Theatre. Additionally they had the opportunity to participate in and join a pannel talk during the three day Post Dance Conference held at MDT under the frame of the LLB activity Performance Situation Room. During the residency, Cullberg Ballet offered lodging in a central apartment hotel, individual local travel cards, a large studio, morning classes with the company, fitness facilities, technical support, and artistic advice in a creative inviroment. Cullberg Ballet also covered the travel costs, per diem and the artist received an individual fee.

The residency was divided into two parts; the first part, as mentioned above, Benjamin was invited to participate in the three days conference “Post Dance” a collaboration between MDT, Cullberg Ballet and DOCH bringing together theorists, artists, students, teachers, curators to contribute to a discussion pertaining to the developments and forces that have shaped choreographic imagination from the 1960s up to today. On the third day of the conference, Benjamin took part in a discussion with Poste Restante (Linn Hilda Lamberg)(SE) and Martina Ruhsam(AT). The discussion was moderated by Bojana Kunst (HR)on the subject: The future of participation, or: from emancipated spectators to actionist artists.

The relationship between the topic of discussion and Benjamins work came from his interest in choreographing the gaze. He has explored this through a diverse series of installation performances like Birdwatching and Point of View that question our perception. Peri-Sphere is Benjamin Vandewalle’s latest investigation in the realm of the visual, taking the form of a one-on-one performative installation. Participants are invited to take place in a mobile periscope system that elicits a profoundly immersive and disorienting experience. Mirrors work to undo the spectator's fixed point of view, and disconnect it from his or her physical position. Peri-Sphere is an invitation to rethink the spatiality of seeing, a choreography of the gaze.

During the second part of his residency Benjamin and Ayelet spent a week at the production house Riksteatern researching for a future project.