(This performance is continuous and starts at 11:30 and is included in the Ruigenhoek entrance fee)

Elephant in the room is an ever-changing performative act that questions how and why we look at animals and what it means to be human in that context.

In this project, Geert Belpaeme reworks material from his previous creation De Dieren into short performances outside the theatre, inspired by his current research into a contemporary clown practice. The performances are always adapted to location, audience, context and atmosphere and take on different forms, from installations and interventions in public space to full-blown clown gag. Different every time, but always on the strange edge between humour, tragedy, social criticism and freedom and at the intersection between dance, performance and mime.

Geert Belpaeme is a theatre maker, performer and teacher/researcher at KASK (School of Arts Ghent). He makes performances between theatre, circus, performance, dance and philosophical experiment. Playfulness and abstraction from an unbridled imagination are dominant characteristics in all his projects. His artistic language sometimes reminds one of a minimalist form of clowning and plays with the gaze and expectation of the spectator.
In addition to l’hommmm, his collective with Mats Van Herreweghe, Geert also founded the company de polen op in 2016 together with Bosse Provoost, Kobe Chielens and Lieselotte De Keyzer. In the same year, Geert also received the Roel Verniers Prize for his solo performanceFirst.