Karel van Laere

In Calling From Work, I call my parents while taking a walk. During a three-month stay in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I would call my parents once a week. When we speak, they often have no idea where I am, but I know exactly where they are at the time of the call: in the living room, on the couch, right next to the Wi-Fi router. For the conversation itself, this doesn’t matter, but the contrast between my parents’ voices and the locations I find myself in creates an absurd reality for me. Calling From Work reflects the contrast between the small, domestic, and familiar and the feeling of being far away in a global environment. How important is it to know exactly where someone is?

Contact at Museum as Performance, Serralves. Porto, Portugal. Picture by_andre-delhaye

The performance Contact has its origin in moments of touch in the public space. During a two year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, working alongside artists from an international community, I became very aware of different norms and customs around physical contact, including my own, and started to keep a diary of moments of touch. All hand shakes, accidental elbow bumps and the tiniest of interactions were noted down at the end of the day. The diary became a score for a live performance.

Making off met masseur Eddie Gilpin

Reach Rewire x Proximity Music picture by Alex Heuvink

Solo exhibition Karel at The Grey Space picture by Gordon Meuleman

Casting is van Laere’s first sculptural installation, specifically realised for The Hague Contemporary. In this work, he explores current issues such as climate change and the human right to breath clean air, the present topic of distancing and isolation, and the connection between safety and invisibility. Time and venue: 10, 11 and 12 September 2020, The Grey Space in the Middle

In the past two years Karel van Laere has explored the boundaries of surrendering and giving up control. A motionless body fastened for 24 hours in Paralysis, a body slid statically across landscapes in the works Slow and Largo, and in a state of hypnosis, entrusted to the hands of choreographers in The Non Present Performer. Given the slow and controlled nature of Karel’s former works, it was high speed and letting go of control which became the starting point for making the project LOS. During the performance Karel’s body is manipulated externally, exploring the loss of control in space. Imperturbable he surrenders for three hours to four machines controlled by choreographer Aitana Cordero. Together they went looking for physical borders, experiment, and made Karel the subject of this research/performance LOS.

The Non-Present Performer contemplates on the following question: What would it be like if, just like a computer, you could switch off your body every now and then? No thoughts, no stimulants, no movement or feeling, what would this state result in? The closest to what I was looking for seemed to be anaesthesia or an epidural. So I approached an anaesthesist. My idea to do a live performance under anaesthesia proved to be impossible. However, the anaesthesist did convince me of the power of hypnosis in this context. The result of all this became a performance in which I, hypnotized, handed over my body to a choreographer and three dancers surrounded by a live audience. I asked the dancers to look for physical borders, to experiment, and to make me the subject of their research as the “Non-Present Performer”. Afterwards, there was a post-show discussion with hypnotist Joris Waayer, anaesthetist Rutger van Leersum, the dancers and the audience. The Non-Present Performer is made possible by ‘Het Fonds Podium Kunsten en Zaal 3‘.

Fascinated by the endless choreographies of people moving in the metropole of Taipei City, Van Laere created his video installation Slow Rise. It captivates the reality of millions of people swarming through the city, like a well orchestrated chaos. As in his previous work SLow (made in Taiwan), Van Laere explores a combination of stillness and dynamics. Slow Rise shows the contrast between the mechanised movement of the escalators, and the human movement of the people. It is also the contrast of the moment of resting as opposed to the movement within a modern city. By staging additional scenes, Van Laere further alienates the experience, bringing focus to the multitude of possibilities in which the escalators are used. Onlookers are invited to silently observe a slice of modern city life.

Inspired by an intense preliminary survey research [Paralysis] and by interviewing two people who live their lives being completely paralyzed, performer and filmmaker Karel van Laere made his short film Largo. A film/performance that shows the defenceless human body surrounded by machines, systems, etc. Using an electric winch he drags himself in an even pase through the Dutch urban and industrial landscape. Marking in an entertaining and wondrous way the contrast between the route of the vulnerable human body and the hectic world surrounding it.

SLow is a performance that shows the defenseless human body surrounded by machines, systems, etc. Karel noticed that in Taiwan, like in other Asian countries, there are strict rules people (have to) live by, and that these rules can not be easily put aside. Slowly but imperturbable the boy in the video follows his own path. Using an invisible electric tackle he drags himself in an even tempo through the Taiwanese urban landscape, marking in an entertaining and wondrous way the contrast between the route of the defenseless human body and the hectic world surrounding it. SLow won the Cinedans 2014 audience award for best short film in EYE Amsterdam. Performance by: Karel van Laere Camera: 李少哲 Line producer: 凌瑋隆 2nd assistent: 莊皓巖 Special thanks to: 莊皓巖, 莊陳保, 鄭敬儒, 葉柏青, 孫斌立, 劉錫權, 陳愷璜, 榮工工程公司 關渡施工所, 台北市北投區關渡宮, 台北市關渡國小.