Art Brussels 2025 | Booth 6C-22: Thomas Verstraeten, Urbi et Orbi, 2024

URBI ET ORBI
A public square in Antwerp, the Astridplein, was replicated in perspective on the stage of the Bourla Theatre. The preacher stood in the middle of the square. Usually, the city itself is his theatre; for the performance he delivered a monologue based on his sermons on a real stage.

In the booth at the fair, a part of this scenery is reworked and presented, including a 9-metre-high facade. In this new setting, the film made of this performance is presented, as well as some photos and scale models.

On the side of the booth, we show an additional hatch from the Seefhoek Series: 21st Century Project.

A street football game was presented as if it was a highly important match. Stadium light illuminated the small, concrete square. The action was filmed for TV. The editing and footage, with drone shots, Steadicam and slow-motion shots, were no different from a professionally filmed match. Two football commentators from the Koolcast Sport podcast professionally commented upon and analyzed the game.

(Seefhoek Series was a seven-part location project that included Urbi et Orbi and 21st Century Project. Seefhoek Series was like a relay race, where one project led to the next.)

About

Theatre-maker, actor and visual artist Thomas Verstraeten lives and works in Antwerp.

Along with Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans and Marie Vinck, Thomas Verstraeten is part of the FC Bergman theatre company, creating plays and operas that have won respect nationally and internationally. The floundering, ever-striving human being takes centre stage in FC Bergman's work. The productions are characterized by large-scale montages of images and experiments with theatre in vast spaces, with groups of extras and integrated video. For the last six years, FC Bergman has been attached to Antwerp's municipal theatre Toneelhuis.

Verstraeten also works independently of FC Bergman on an art practice that straddles performing arts and visual arts. In his visual practice, Verstraeten spins narratives out of the movements of the city and its inhabitants, out of their visible and hidden stories and lives. In his videos, installations and often participatory performances, the ordinary is theatralized into the extraordinary. Theatralization is "not about the creation of fiction, but the transformation and idealization of time and space" (Bart Verschaffel, On Theatricality). These projects have been presented in the urban public space and in cultural institutions.