As he presents his work for the first time in France this season, the French press has already dubbed him as a "rising figure of the Flemish avant-garde," "a rising star of the Belgian scene," but also "the new prodigy of the Flemish art scene"... At just 27 years old, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe already holds a comfortable place among the emerging names of the European art scene.
As one of the artistic team of the Toneelhuis theater in Antwerp, he is currently touring several of his shows in France and Europe. His performances bring together the past, the present, and the future, breaking down all barriers between genres, mediums, and forms. He unites dancers who are willing to sing and singers who are willing to dance, promoting a flow of knowledge, talent, and questioning. He leads artists who accept to follow him in an active research, an intuitive research, a research in movement.
Through his revisitation of Monteverdi's Madrigals, he aims to return to the point zero, to the beginning, and create a primitive, utopian, parity, and deconstructed community. Or he projects us 2000 years into the future, seeking to understand whether the species that will still be alive in 4020, will still try to connect with their emotions by activating from ancient musical scores. His creations are therefore hybrid, unclassifiable, it activate all senses in the audience.
So I wanted to meet him and understand a little better what guides his intuitions and nourishes his creations. Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe is my guest in Le Beau Bizarre !
Thanks to Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe for his availability and simplicity. Thanks to Louise van den Eedeand Khaled Barghouthi, for their precious and generous participation. Thanks to Déborah and Myra press agency for their responsiveness and organization of the press trip, to the Tandem in Douai.
To learn more about Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe's work : [https://arthappens.be/fr/spectacle/madrigals/](To learn more about Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe's work: https://arthappens.be/fr/spectacle/madrigals/)