Working with breakage and aberrations are elementary factors in the work of Raimund Hoghe. The pathos of sentimental songs and a body that deviates from the norm – these things characterised his pieces in the 1990’s, as well as the clash of popular hits with the polished literary word. Young and old are contrasted both in “Young People, Old Voices” and “Sacre – The Rite of Spring”, in which Hoghe appears alongside dancer Lorenzo De Brabendere. Raimund Hoghe clothes his keen perspective on exclusion and discrimination in a highly aesthetic theatrical setting.
From the beginning, Hoghe, now an internationally acclaimed artist, prepared spaces for colleagues, establishing and re-neutralising them with his gestures, actions and trajectories. He framed their performances like a host and master of ceremonies. Over the past two years, Raimund Hoghe has created two pieces explicitly dedicated to dancers. “L’Après-midi”, the wonderful reformulation of “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune”, focuses on soloist Emmanuel Eggermont. His latest piece, “Sans-titre”, is devoted to Congolese dancer, choreographer and director Faustin Linyekula. It is also a lamentation for the dead, a piece of sorrow, that creates a space for the rootless with no papers to certify their existence (the ‘sans-papiers’), for the refugee, the illegal alien, the nobody. As in all of Raimund Hoghe’s work, radical clarity and reduction is blended with tremendous atmospheric force, evoking longing, beauty and a fragile utopia.
From the beginning, Hoghe, now an internationally acclaimed artist, prepared spaces for colleagues, establishing and re-neutralising them with his gestures, actions and trajectories. He framed their performances like a host and master of ceremonies. Over the past two years, Raimund Hoghe has created two pieces explicitly dedicated to dancers. “L’Après-midi”, the wonderful reformulation of “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune”, focuses on soloist Emmanuel Eggermont. His latest piece, “Sans-titre”, is devoted to Congolese dancer, choreographer and director Faustin Linyekula. It is also a lamentation for the dead, a piece of sorrow, that creates a space for the rootless with no papers to certify their existence (the ‘sans-papiers’), for the refugee, the illegal alien, the nobody. As in all of Raimund Hoghe’s work, radical clarity and reduction is blended with tremendous atmospheric force, evoking longing, beauty and a fragile utopia.
Katja Schneider
