Holle Haven - Performance

Slam performance that combines spoken word and contemporary classical music.

Slam performance that combines spoken word and contemporary classical music by Gaea Schoeters, Annelies Van Parys, Els Mondelaers & Lies Colman

In the spring of 2020, amidst the first lockdown, De Buren launched ‘Besmette Stad’ (‘Contaminated City’), a project in which they asked authors to reinterpret the collection ‘Bezette Stad’ (‘Occupied City’) of the Belgian poet and writer, Paul van Ostaijen, to the current corona context. Via a process of co-creation, Gaea Schoeters’ Holle Haven (‘Hollow Haven’) grew into a 40-minute music-theatrical performance. One could call it Slam 2.0; the four artists wanted to push the genre to its limits by combining spoken word with contemporary classical music. The result is a stage performance that sounds like a jam session around a grand piano (played as piano four hands by Lies Colman and Annelies Van Parys) in which Els Mondelaers lends her voice to Van Ostaijen while Gaea Schoeters brings him into the present day.

Text and voice: Gaea Schoeters

Vocals: Els Mondelaers

Piano: Lies Colman

Composition and piano: Annelies van Parys

Video: Sébastien van Malleghem

Direction: Sjaron Minailo


Full development as a co-creative project (Colman/Mondelaers/Schoeters/Van Parys)
Co-production: Muziektheater Transparant in collaboration with Concertgebouw Brugge.