Art Climate Transition
Co-funded by the
Creative Europe Programme
of the European Union
Artist

Boogaerdt / VanderSchoot

Rotterdam

The Netherlands

 

Suzan Boogaerdt and Bianca van der Schoot have been working together ever since they graduated together from the Mime Department of the Amsterdam Theatre School in 1999. In 2016, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot became key artistic associates of Theater Rotterdam, and since then they have been working in both Rotterdam and Berlin, where they co-create with Susanne Kennedy at the Volksbühne.

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BvdS, photo by Willem de Kam BvdS, photo by Willem de Kam

Boogaerdt / Vanderschoot create expressive, physical, bold and highly visual theatrical installations, which revolve around the struggles and challenges people face in today’s media-driven world. They look for the relevance of theatre in the 21th century, and focus on the development of new theatrical shapes and idioms that give space and meaning to our post humanity, and to the flexible and multiple identities that arise from it.

Since 2011 they have been working on a series of ‘Visual Statements’: theatrical representations of ‘la societé du spectacle’ and the role of image culture in our lives. Ours is a universe of representation, in which what is real actually slowly dies. With their Visual Statements-series, Boogaerdt and Van der Schoot are creating ground-breaking and troubling theatre of a special status in Dutch theatre. This series contains five performances: BIMBO, Small World, Spectacular performance, Hideous (wo)men
(a co-operation with director Susanne Kennedy) and The Immortals. At the Venice Biennale 2017, they presented a selection of the series.

The artistic ongoing conversation with Susanne Kennedy was followed up after Hideous (wo)men, by a radical adaptation of the Orpheus-legend, ORFEO, at the Ruhr Triennale in 2015, and in collaboration with Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop. They also made two productions together for the Volksbühne in Berlin: Women in Trouble (2017) and Coming Society (2019).

Starting in 2016, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot made Freddie (2017), Headroom (2018, and in
collaboration with Erik Whien), and Botanical Wasteland (2019) for Theater Roaerdam. Botanical Wasteland is the first part of the Future Fossils series, and a co-creation with Touki Delphine. That same year, they also performed at Oerol the tryptich The Infectious Event, consisting of the performances Botanical Wasteland, Walk of Things and Firebird. The following tour of Botanical Wasteland in 2020, was sold out nationwide.

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