Cinema, Podium en
Werkplek in Kortrijk

Stefa Govaart (BE), Bryana Fritz (US) & Chloe Chignell (AU)

Begin / The Mirror

Begin / The Mirror resurrects the history of Medieval beguine communities: lay religious women who were living, working, and practicing their faith together in urban centers throughout the former Low Countries starting in the 12th century. The performance is devoted to a book written by the beguine Marguerite Porete (ca. 1250-1310) entitled Le Miroir des âmes simples anéanties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et désir d’amour. Written in the vernacular and in the form of a play between the characters Love, Reason, and the Soul, Porete lays out seven stages of love that a soul must pass through in order to achieve its total annihilation and complete union with god. Bypassing the papal-monarchal powers of her time by offering women direct access to the divine, the book was condemned in Cambrai, set to flames in Valenciennes, and eventually Porete herself was burned at the stake in Paris. Through dance, sound, and text, Begin / The Mirror embodies each of Porete’s seven stages to explore the movements of medieval mysticism, the spiritual practice of radical love, and the political dimensions of self-annihilation. Cutting through the fabric of centuries to translate, in all our humbleness and by the graces of collectivity, this fated text.

During their residency at BUDA, they will be engaging with local Beguine history, doing site visits, and creating dance and text material for the performance. This performance will premiere on November 29 & 30 – Espace Pasolini (Valenciennes) in the context of NEXT Festival.

Stefa Govaart (BE), Bryana Fritz (US) & Chloe Chignell (AU)

Bryana Fritz is a choreographer, dancer, and writer based in Marseille. She works at the intersection between poetry and performance often in duet with the user interface of OS X. Her work is fed by a continued interest in medieval literature, fanfiction, media studies, and histories of illiteracy. She also collaborates with Henry Andersen under the moniker Slow Reading Club.

Chloe Chignell is an artist based in Brussels working across text, choreography and publishing. She invests in writing as a body building practice, examining the ways in which language makes us up. Chloe runs rile* a bookshop and project space with Sven Dehens.

Stefa Govaart‘s work stages the repressive devices that relay and receive the (theatrical) body in its negativity and convoluted sense of continuity across dance, performance and text. The mark of collaborators is embedded in their work through dialogue, rehearsal, and entrustment. Brussels based, they are part of the research group Sex Negativity at Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis.

In residence

01 Jul 2024 – 07 Jul 2024
Budatoren
04 Nov 2024 – 15 Nov 2024
Budascoop

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