Ann Van den Broek was in Nantes from April 9 – 13 with her crew for a comprehensive presentation of her work at Le Lieu Unique. This French center for the arts was a supporting partner in the creation of The Balancing Act. We remember this wonderful collaboration fondly.

A year ago, we traveled to Nantes for a residency, during which the idea was hatched to organize a weekof presentations focusing on Ann Van den Broek’s work. During that week we not only performed two shows of The Balancing Act, but also presented Loops of Emotions in the industrial exhibition space of the cultural center, as well as the Memory Loss Concert with musicians Gregory Frateur, Nicolas Rombouts and Sjoerd Bruil, plus Accusations Walks together with students from Nantes. Sjoerd Bruil and Nicolas Rombouts also performed their project Kaijin Kaiwa, and after one of the performances of The Balancing Act, Sjoerd Bruil also showed everyone his skills as a DJ.

The productions were presented in the framework of an extensive exhibition of Ann Van den Broek’s work. Check out the photos and the after-movie to get an impression of this week-long presentation.

Exhibition
The exhibition in the industrial space of Le Lieu Unique included the screening of two films: Memory Loss Inside (for which WARd/waRD won the Cinedans ‘Performance Relay & Camera Rework Competition’ in 2022) and the documentary that Guido Verelst made during the creation of The Balancing Act. The installation Loops of Emotions and the cage of the Memory Loss Concert were also on display in the large open space where one could also explore the original source material of The Balancing Act.

Accusation Walks
Together with students at the University of Nantes we presented Accusation Walks. Fifteen students took part in a series of workshops led by Frauke Mariën. The work they created was shown before one of the performances of The Balancing Act in the public space in and around Le Lieu Unique.

Memory Loss Concert
Gregory Frateur, Nicolas Rombouts and Sjoerd Bruil played improvisations based on the original compositions for the three productions of the Memory Loss Collection. In Nantes the concert took place in the exhibition space, and members of the audience were free to walk around, take a seat or sway to the music.

photos: David Gallard