‘Why make a work of art when it is so beautiful to dream about it?’ With that quote from filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the visitor to the exhibition becomes All About Theater About Film sent home. This impressive exhibition is about the interaction between theater and film in the oeuvre of director Ivo van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld (both affiliated with International Theater Amsterdam).
Van Hove and Versweyveld are often inspired by cinema in their choice of repertoire. Moreover, in recent decades they have also shown themselves to be pioneers when it comes to the use of (live) video on stage. Large projection screens are often an important part of the stage, providing a substantial addition or welcome disruption to what is shown on the floor. Their multimedia theater language can count on enormous success worldwide; the two operate from their home base in Amsterdam to Broadway in New York.
Reason enough for Eye Filmmuseum to All About Theater About Film an extensive exhibition about the interaction between film and theater in the work of Van Hove and Versweyveld, designed by the two theater makers themselves.
Also read: Ivo van Hove likes to remain a mystery, also for himself
The exhibition is based on fourteen plays that the duo made between 1997 and 2017, based on the work of seven film makers. The exhibition is a work of art in itself. Not only do open notebooks full of inimitable schemes, registrations of rehearsal pieces and models of set designs offer a unique insight into the creative processes of these stage innovators; by the overwhelming sensuality is All About Theater About Film also a direct immersion in this special oeuvre.
Also read: How Jan Versweyveld creates his spectacular sets: ‘I always look for the essence of a place’
visual language
In his work Van Hove starts from language, not from images. He therefore does not adapt films, but film scripts. As a result, the differences in visual language between film and theater are always large. Registrations and photos from the relevant films and plays are recurring elements in the exhibition, but Van Hove and Versweyveld go much further: each space breathes the atmosphere of the relevant staging through, among other things, the use of light, music score and design. From the soft carpet and the monochromatic glow of the sodium light in the space that revolves around the performance India Song (1999, after the film by Duras) to the huge truck engine from obsession (2017, Visconti) which, just like in the theater staging, hangs from the ceiling in the threateningly darkly decorated space.
Van Hove and Versweyveld look for contrasts: on the chaos that speaks from the space around Scenes from a wedding (2005, Bergman) – a stimulating room in which weathered theater registrations of the performance can be seen on old televisions – later follows the serene diptych After the rehearsal/Persona (2012, Bergman) – where film fragments from the performance reflect in a basin of still water. Next to it is a sculpture by Berlinde De Bruyckere: a tormented naked body, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just like in their better theater work, Van Hove and Versweyveld offer handles that you yourself can associate with, they fire signs at the viewer that are confusing in their beauty.
This certainly also applies to the almost completely stripped space with a large canvas in the middle, with smears of blue paint and something that reminds of excrement. On a screen see how that is in the performance Cries and whispers (2009, Bergman): the death throes of main character Agnes (played by Chris Nietveld) is illustrated by a penetrating twenty-minute live body painting scene.
After the 1972 film and the 2009 performance, the thick blobs of paint on the canvas now tell this story. All About Theater About Film really feels like a theatrical experience, in which you as a visitor figure.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 6, 2021
‘Why make a work of art when it is so beautiful to dream about it?’ With that quote from filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the visitor to the exhibition becomes All About Theater About Film sent home. This impressive exhibition is about the interaction between theater and film in the oeuvre of director Ivo van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld (both affiliated with International Theater Amsterdam).
Van Hove and Versweyveld are often inspired by cinema in their choice of repertoire. Moreover, in recent decades they have also shown themselves to be pioneers when it comes to the use of (live) video on stage. Large projection screens are often an important part of the stage, providing a substantial addition or welcome disruption to what is shown on the floor. Their multimedia theater language can count on enormous success worldwide; the two operate from their home base in Amsterdam to Broadway in New York.
Reason enough for Eye Filmmuseum to All About Theater About Film an extensive exhibition about the interaction between film and theater in the work of Van Hove and Versweyveld, designed by the two theater makers themselves.
Also read: Ivo van Hove likes to remain a mystery, also for himself
The exhibition is based on fourteen plays that the duo made between 1997 and 2017, based on the work of seven film makers. The exhibition is a work of art in itself. Not only do open notebooks full of inimitable schemes, registrations of rehearsal pieces and models of set designs offer a unique insight into the creative processes of these stage innovators; by the overwhelming sensuality is All About Theater About Film also a direct immersion in this special oeuvre.
Also read: How Jan Versweyveld creates his spectacular sets: ‘I always look for the essence of a place’
visual language
In his work Van Hove starts from language, not from images. He therefore does not adapt films, but film scripts. As a result, the differences in visual language between film and theater are always large. Registrations and photos from the relevant films and plays are recurring elements in the exhibition, but Van Hove and Versweyveld go much further: each space breathes the atmosphere of the relevant staging through, among other things, the use of light, music score and design. From the soft carpet and the monochromatic glow of the sodium light in the space that revolves around the performance India Song (1999, after the film by Duras) to the huge truck engine from obsession (2017, Visconti) which, just like in the theater staging, hangs from the ceiling in the threateningly darkly decorated space.
Van Hove and Versweyveld look for contrasts: on the chaos that speaks from the space around Scenes from a wedding (2005, Bergman) – a stimulating room in which weathered theater registrations of the performance can be seen on old televisions – later follows the serene diptych After the rehearsal/Persona (2012, Bergman) – where film fragments from the performance reflect in a basin of still water. Next to it is a sculpture by Berlinde De Bruyckere: a tormented naked body, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just like in their better theater work, Van Hove and Versweyveld offer handles that you yourself can associate with, they fire signs at the viewer that are confusing in their beauty.
This certainly also applies to the almost completely stripped space with a large canvas in the middle, with smears of blue paint and something that reminds of excrement. On a screen see how that is in the performance Cries and whispers (2009, Bergman): the death throes of main character Agnes (played by Chris Nietveld) is illustrated by a penetrating twenty-minute live body painting scene.
After the 1972 film and the 2009 performance, the thick blobs of paint on the canvas now tell this story. All About Theater About Film really feels like a theatrical experience, in which you as a visitor figure.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 6, 2021
‘Why make a work of art when it is so beautiful to dream about it?’ With that quote from filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the visitor to the exhibition becomes All About Theater About Film sent home. This impressive exhibition is about the interaction between theater and film in the oeuvre of director Ivo van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld (both affiliated with International Theater Amsterdam).
Van Hove and Versweyveld are often inspired by cinema in their choice of repertoire. Moreover, in recent decades they have also shown themselves to be pioneers when it comes to the use of (live) video on stage. Large projection screens are often an important part of the stage, providing a substantial addition or welcome disruption to what is shown on the floor. Their multimedia theater language can count on enormous success worldwide; the two operate from their home base in Amsterdam to Broadway in New York.
Reason enough for Eye Filmmuseum to All About Theater About Film an extensive exhibition about the interaction between film and theater in the work of Van Hove and Versweyveld, designed by the two theater makers themselves.
Also read: Ivo van Hove likes to remain a mystery, also for himself
The exhibition is based on fourteen plays that the duo made between 1997 and 2017, based on the work of seven film makers. The exhibition is a work of art in itself. Not only do open notebooks full of inimitable schemes, registrations of rehearsal pieces and models of set designs offer a unique insight into the creative processes of these stage innovators; by the overwhelming sensuality is All About Theater About Film also a direct immersion in this special oeuvre.
Also read: How Jan Versweyveld creates his spectacular sets: ‘I always look for the essence of a place’
visual language
In his work Van Hove starts from language, not from images. He therefore does not adapt films, but film scripts. As a result, the differences in visual language between film and theater are always large. Registrations and photos from the relevant films and plays are recurring elements in the exhibition, but Van Hove and Versweyveld go much further: each space breathes the atmosphere of the relevant staging through, among other things, the use of light, music score and design. From the soft carpet and the monochromatic glow of the sodium light in the space that revolves around the performance India Song (1999, after the film by Duras) to the huge truck engine from obsession (2017, Visconti) which, just like in the theater staging, hangs from the ceiling in the threateningly darkly decorated space.
Van Hove and Versweyveld look for contrasts: on the chaos that speaks from the space around Scenes from a wedding (2005, Bergman) – a stimulating room in which weathered theater registrations of the performance can be seen on old televisions – later follows the serene diptych After the rehearsal/Persona (2012, Bergman) – where film fragments from the performance reflect in a basin of still water. Next to it is a sculpture by Berlinde De Bruyckere: a tormented naked body, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just like in their better theater work, Van Hove and Versweyveld offer handles that you yourself can associate with, they fire signs at the viewer that are confusing in their beauty.
This certainly also applies to the almost completely stripped space with a large canvas in the middle, with smears of blue paint and something that reminds of excrement. On a screen see how that is in the performance Cries and whispers (2009, Bergman): the death throes of main character Agnes (played by Chris Nietveld) is illustrated by a penetrating twenty-minute live body painting scene.
After the 1972 film and the 2009 performance, the thick blobs of paint on the canvas now tell this story. All About Theater About Film really feels like a theatrical experience, in which you as a visitor figure.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 6, 2021
‘Why make a work of art when it is so beautiful to dream about it?’ With that quote from filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the visitor to the exhibition becomes All About Theater About Film sent home. This impressive exhibition is about the interaction between theater and film in the oeuvre of director Ivo van Hove and his regular scenographer Jan Versweyveld (both affiliated with International Theater Amsterdam).
Van Hove and Versweyveld are often inspired by cinema in their choice of repertoire. Moreover, in recent decades they have also shown themselves to be pioneers when it comes to the use of (live) video on stage. Large projection screens are often an important part of the stage, providing a substantial addition or welcome disruption to what is shown on the floor. Their multimedia theater language can count on enormous success worldwide; the two operate from their home base in Amsterdam to Broadway in New York.
Reason enough for Eye Filmmuseum to All About Theater About Film an extensive exhibition about the interaction between film and theater in the work of Van Hove and Versweyveld, designed by the two theater makers themselves.
Also read: Ivo van Hove likes to remain a mystery, also for himself
The exhibition is based on fourteen plays that the duo made between 1997 and 2017, based on the work of seven film makers. The exhibition is a work of art in itself. Not only do open notebooks full of inimitable schemes, registrations of rehearsal pieces and models of set designs offer a unique insight into the creative processes of these stage innovators; by the overwhelming sensuality is All About Theater About Film also a direct immersion in this special oeuvre.
Also read: How Jan Versweyveld creates his spectacular sets: ‘I always look for the essence of a place’
visual language
In his work Van Hove starts from language, not from images. He therefore does not adapt films, but film scripts. As a result, the differences in visual language between film and theater are always large. Registrations and photos from the relevant films and plays are recurring elements in the exhibition, but Van Hove and Versweyveld go much further: each space breathes the atmosphere of the relevant staging through, among other things, the use of light, music score and design. From the soft carpet and the monochromatic glow of the sodium light in the space that revolves around the performance India Song (1999, after the film by Duras) to the huge truck engine from obsession (2017, Visconti) which, just like in the theater staging, hangs from the ceiling in the threateningly darkly decorated space.
Van Hove and Versweyveld look for contrasts: on the chaos that speaks from the space around Scenes from a wedding (2005, Bergman) – a stimulating room in which weathered theater registrations of the performance can be seen on old televisions – later follows the serene diptych After the rehearsal/Persona (2012, Bergman) – where film fragments from the performance reflect in a basin of still water. Next to it is a sculpture by Berlinde De Bruyckere: a tormented naked body, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just like in their better theater work, Van Hove and Versweyveld offer handles that you yourself can associate with, they fire signs at the viewer that are confusing in their beauty.
This certainly also applies to the almost completely stripped space with a large canvas in the middle, with smears of blue paint and something that reminds of excrement. On a screen see how that is in the performance Cries and whispers (2009, Bergman): the death throes of main character Agnes (played by Chris Nietveld) is illustrated by a penetrating twenty-minute live body painting scene.
After the 1972 film and the 2009 performance, the thick blobs of paint on the canvas now tell this story. All About Theater About Film really feels like a theatrical experience, in which you as a visitor figure.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 6, 2021