POSTCARDS FROM THE FUTURE | 2011

“...so the spectator, provided with his prophetic postcard, will choose the point of view from which he will be able to watch the future carried out. Of course he’ll appreciate it’s implacable exactitude, but he will as well be surprised by it’s divergences, uncontrollable hazards of history..."


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General concept

Postcards from the Future makes use of postcards to immor- talize daily urban scenes. These scenes are staged twice with the help of a group of hired extras. The first staging is a photo shooting during which the scene in question is simulated and pictures for a postcard are taken. The post- card is then printed and distributed throughout the city. On the traditionnal caption of the pictures, the location at which the photograph has been taken is indicated, along with a specific date and time located in the future. The postcard so invites whoever receives it to come to a specific place at a specific moment.

This very moment is when the second staging (a perfor- mance) takes place: The same extras, wearing the same clothes reproduce the exact same scene in front of those who have come to the appointment. But this time no pic- ture is taken. Instead, the characters of the postcard emerge from the normal street life of the place, reappearing to repro- duce a situation which contains the exact same snapshot as the one captured on the postcard. The action (a genuine choreography as it were, involving up to almost a hundred extras) is spectacular only to those who are in possession of the postcard, for it is, as such, a mere reproduction of what could take place any day on this location...

Postcards from the Future has been previously realized in Geneva at the Point d’Impact Festival (Piano Nobile Gallery) in 2007, in Leuven for the Playground Festival (STUK & M- Museum) in 2008. In 2009, C&H was invited by the Centre Pompidou-Metz to produce a version of Postcards from the Future for Constellation, the inaugural festival of the new art center.


Postcards from the Future in Brussels 2010-2011
A new version of Postcards from the Future is being devel- opped for the city of Brussels, in collaboration with Kunst/ Werk, KVS, Workspace Brussels, and a dozen of other lo- cal partners. This Brussels-specific version of the project fo- cusses on ways of dealing with modern urban diversity and cultural difference through (self)-image production and the inevitable stereotypizing biases thereof:
Eight postcards/performances, will be produced, each dedi- cated to a specific district of Brussels. The postcards will be issued one at the time on a monthly basis, during the whole 2010-2011 season, inviting audiences to attend one perfor- mance each month, each time in a different part of the city.
This version of the project will engage in a more profound dialogue with the city, principally through involving local ac- tors of the respective districts, not only as the extras of the pictures, but also in the definition of what should be shown on the postcard.
Each postcard offers a specific view onto the local reality it represents. Being kind of self-portraits of the districts, they aim at challenging common clichés and prejudices, often making use of those stereotypes to do so.
Just as a “genuine postcard” usually does, these postcards from the different parts of Brussels will produce a specific image destinated to the “outside” (the other districts, or the other populations of the city). They hence function as the filtered appearance one wishes to give of oneself to others, but at the same time, through performing and re-performing themselves, the “actors” of the postcards produce an event susceptible of triggering local self reflection.
The re-enactment performances confront the distant fantasy of the images with a direct experience of the exact same situation. They become —on both sides of the actor/specta- tor divide as it were— a performative verification of the an- nouncements made by the postcards.
The postcards/performances will be realized in the following places: Molenbeek (september 2010), Place Flagey (octo- ber 2010), St.Gilles (november 2010), North station (decem- ber 2010), European Parliament (march 2011), Anderlecht (april 2011), City centre (mai 2011), Matongé (june 2011).

Tour

04-10-2007 until 06/10/2007, Piano Nobile / Geneva POINT D_IMPACT FESTIVAL
31-10-2008 until 07/11/2008, STUK / Leuven PLAYGROUND FESTIVAL - www.stuk.be
16-05-2009 Place d_Armes, 14:47, CONSTELLATION FESTIVAL / Prefiguration du Centre Pompidou Metz


concept :
C&H
realisation :
Christophe Meierhans, Christoph Ragg, Heike Langsdorf
co-production Geneva :
frogs OS, Kunst/Werk, Piano Nobile, Point d_impact
co-production Leuven :
Kunst/Werk, Stuk, M Museum
co-production Metz :
Kunst/Werk, Centre Pompidou Metz
production Brussels :
Kunst/Werk
co-production and support Brussels :
KVS, WBS, VGC, VG
local partners Brussels :
MCCS Molenbeek, La Maraude - St.Josse, Centre Flagey, Pianofabriek, Brailliga, Nadine
distribution partners Brussels :
Wiels, Kaaitheater, Elzenhof, Les Bains Connective, ...