IN THE ROOM

IN THE ROOM

is the last part of the performance art triptych

‘PARTNER / YOU’ (2013-2020)

Presented live on a digital streaming platform, it is a continuous performance of one hour that repeats every week at the same time at the same hour in which digital media, installation & live performance, featuring the music and themes of Le Sacre du Printemps by Russian Igor Stravinsky. 

 

IN THE ROOM (2020) will happen in the french XV th Century village of Saint Cirq Lapopie, more precisely on the isolated village square in front the Maison Andre Breton. Against the background of shadowy chat forums and dating sites, the artist is investigating the ritual aspect of our daily search for social interaction and gratification on the internet, which is like a no-man's land in the domain of privacy legislation, voyeurism, solitude, and isolation. IN THE ROOM (2020) the last part of the performance triptych PARTNER/ YOU, shifts the village square back to its primal meaning.

Presented live on a digital streaming platform, it is a continuous performance of one hour that repeats every week at the same time at the same hour in which digital media, installation & live performance, featuring the music and themes of Le Sacre du Printemps by Russian Igor Stravinsky. 

The ballet along with the music itself in its time was considered quite shocking, conveying primitive rituals on stage for the first time, whereby a tribe offers a young girl as a sacrifice for a promising spring harvest. 

Conceptually, its location is transposed : the sacrificial act moved from the village square to theatre square

PARTNER/YOU ( 2013) similarly shifts from the museum exhibition/ space THIRTY THREE DEGREES (2017) to the private space of a room  and back to the village square, this time the french medieval village of Saint Cirq Lapopie.

IN THE ROOM (2020) will be the last part of the peformance art tryptich PARTNER /YOU.

Against the background of shadowy chat forums and dating sites, the artist is investigating the ritual aspect of our daily search for social interaction and gratification on the internet, which is like a no-man's land in the domain of privacy legislation, voyeurism, solitude, and isolation.

The performance

IN THE ROOM is a real-time online performance that takes place on a dating platform . A Guest artist (live from room one) sits behind a connected computer running chats of strangers online about life in general and about the dancer (live from village square Saint Cirq Lapopie) visible via a webcam (in room 3) that the others are able to see. 

The chat text is inputted and streamed live via the platform of an organizer (set in a venue) that invites their audience to join this event from their homes via zoom/ Vimeo or another streaming platform.

Room 1, 2 , 3 & 4

For this first online event, I invited Carlos Aires and musician Yannick Franck to join me in the live performance. During the performance a triangular relationship is constituted between three parties. 1.Chantal Yzermans/live performer/ 2. Carlos Aires/live chatter/3. Random chatters from dating sites. 4.Live stream footage of those 3 rooms are presented the in special designed scenography for the venue who organises the event.

20 pre-selected participants are at home watching in their front row seats looking at private and provocative scenes. In three different virtual spaces, the performers are triggering conversations and reactions. The three dark foreboding rooms are amplified by the carnal sounds of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Concept Video / Performance Chantal Yzermans Performance Duration1 to 6 hours Sound Design Live Performance Yannick Franck Live Video Projection Gertjan Biasino Design Platform Samyra Moumouh Commissioned by Het Vlot Oostende / Mu.Zee Production Radical Low

Photography Aleksei Kazantsev Video by Max Reyers

Performance History
Troubleyn / Laboratorium, Antwerpen (BE), 2019, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oostende (BE), 2017 LOOP City Screen 2018, Barcelona (S) Festival Casabanchel 2017, Madrid (S) Cultuurcentrum Grote Post, Oostende (BE) Coup de Ville 2016, St Niklaas (BE) Circulo Bellas Artes, Madrid (S)  M_HKA Museum for Contemporary Art Antwerpen, (BE) December Dans 2015, Brugge (BE) Le Careau du Temple, Paris (FR) Troubleyn Jan Fabre, Antwerpen (BE)
Monty Kunstencentrum Februari, Antwerpen (BE) Bruno Glint Gallery, London (GB)
Festival Escena Contemporanea, Madrid (S)