Dries Verhoeven

Dries Verhoeven

Gestures that overawe and leave an impression

Dries Verhoeven makes experiential productions: installations, happenings and performances in which the spectator is the pivot. The audience is often physically involved in the show. Performers do not feature in his productions; they merely act as ‘staff’ helping to guide the spectators through their experience. The projects are on the interface of expressive art and theatre, and can be appreciated by wide audiences.

In a busy, chaotic world, Dries Verhoeven goes in search of gestures that will overawe and leave an impression, that will allow the spectators to rediscover their inner self. Within the reality of day-to-day life, he manages to create intrusive, poetic and confusing moments, moments that allow you to experience reality from a different perspective. The projects are often presented in the context of a festival or on location. A lot is left to chance or input from the audience.

Over the past few years, Dries Verhoeven has produced work including Thy kingdom come, featuring two spectators who have never met, in the same room but separated by sound-proof glass; Trail tracking, in which spectators speak to a performer on a mobile phone while walking through a deserted train station; and You are here, in which a spectator lies on a bed in a hotel room, with a view of the other ‘guests’ via a large mirror.