A Two Dogs Company
GOSSIP

source: performancespace

Gossip is a major video installation from renowned Belgian artist and theatre-maker Kris Verdonck, whose innovative work crosses visual arts, theatre, installation, architecture and performance.

Across the width of an entire wall, a large company of people gaze at the audience, representatives of a society that stands at the edge of an abyss. The projected men and women incessantly whisper words into each others ears, secure in the secrets that bind them as they look down upon us.

A digital painting or group video portrait, Gossip will be accompanied by a public lecture by Verdonck, one of the world’s leaders in new and differential media performance making
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source: atwodogscompanyorg

“We are five friends, one day we came out of a house one after the other, first one came and placed himself beside the gate. […] Finally we all stood in a row. […] Since then we have been living together, it would be a peaceful life if it weren’t for a sixth one continually trying to interfere. He doesn’t do us any harm, but he annoys us. […] We push him away with our elbows, but however much we push him away, back he comes.”
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source: performancespacecomau

Gossip is a video work that takes up an entire wall, a peeking painting that is amused by the spectator and looks down on him/her. Gossip will be accompanied by a public lecture by Verdonck, one of the word leaders in digital performance making.
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source: atwodogscompanyorg

Kris Verdonck (born 1974) studied visual arts, architecture and theatre and this training is evident in his work. His creations are positioned in the transit zone between visual arts and theatre, between installation and performance, between dance and architecture. As a theatre maker and visual artist, he can look back over a wide variety of projects.

He directed theatre productions and produced various installations, a.o. 5 (2003), Catching Whales Is Easy (2004), II (2005). The first STILLS, consisting of gigantic projections, were commissioned by La Notte Bianca in Rome. In 2007 he created the theatrical installation I/II/III/IIII, while in 2008 END premièred at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.

Verdonck often presents combinations of different installations/performances as VARIATIONS.
VARIATION IV was shown during the Festival d’Avignon in 2008. In 2010 Kris Verdonck finished the ‘circuit performance’ ACTOR #1 which shows three variations on the theme from chaos to order. K, a Society, a circuit of installations inspired by the work of Franz Kafka premiered at Theater der Welt 2010 Germany.
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source: atwodogscompanyorg

Ich möchte alles, was ich fühl, nicht fühlen
und ganz allein sein. Nein, nicht ganz allein.
Ich möchte gern zwei Hunde sein
und miteinander spielen.
‘Spleen’, Friedrich Torberg

From 1 January 2010, Stilllab npo, the ‘company’ run by the artist and theatre-maker Kris Verdonck, will be receiving an operational subsidy from the Flemish Government: a good moment to reorganise and choose a new name. The artistic practice of Kris Verdonck has developed and expanded in a very fruitful way over the last few years. His projects have been presented on stages as well as in museums in Belgium and abroad. This growth can only be consolidated if a small flexible organisation can follow up and structure the work on a permanent basis. Theatre is never made alone: it is no longer the work of one young dog, but about the practice of several young dogs that play together. That’s why Kris Verdonck has chosen a new name inspired by Friedrich Torberg’s poem, ‘Spleen’: A Two Dogs Company.
Sadly enough, the company and Kris Verdonck lost Marianne Van Kerkhoven, one of the leading voices in the Flemish theatre as a dramaturge and writer. She accompanied the work of Kris Verdonck since the very beginning.

A Two Dogs Company started a residency in the Kaaitheater in Brussels in 2010.

The company is structurally supported by the Flemish authorities and the Flemish Community Commission (VGC).