Shadow Text, Begin / The Mirror, Poem at Work, Poems and Other Emergencies, PUBLIC RELATIONS, APRIL (a performance), ...as if leaking, Forever in both Directions, This Container, Touch(ed), Soft Reality

Begin / The Mirror
Begijn / Des Âmes Simples
Beguine / De Lesbiennes 
Begouine / Sex.e.s
Beguine / Pas-Toute
Begijn / De Spleet
Begin / Non


Begin / The Mirror resurrects the history of Medieval beguine communities: lay religious women who were living, working, and practicing their faith together in urban centers throughout the former Low Countries starting in the 12th century. The performance is devoted to a book written by the beguine Marguerite Porete (ca. 1250-1310) entitled Le Miroir des âmes simples anéanties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et désir d'amour. Written in the vernacular and in the form of a play between the characters Love, Reason, and the Soul, Porete lays out seven stages of love that a soul must pass through in order to achieve its total annihilation and complete union with god. Bypassing the papal-monarchal powers of her time by offering women direct access to the divine, the book was condemned in Cambrai, set to flames in Valenciennes, and eventually Porete herself was burned at the stake in Paris. Through dance, sound, and text, Begin / The Mirror embodies each of Porete’s seven stages to explore the movements of medieval mysticism, the spiritual practice of radical love, and the political dimensions of self-annihilation. Cutting through the fabric of centuries to translate, in all our humbleness and by the graces of collectivity, this fated text. 

A performance by Bryana Fritz, Stefa Govaart and Chloe Chignell
Light design: Alice Panziera


Co-producers and partners: Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini (Valenciennes), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), NEXT FESTIVAL, Pavillon ADC (Geneva), La Briqueterie CDCN (Val-de-Marne), Viernulvier (Gent), Klosterruine (Berlin), Coproduction du Fonds Transfabrik - fonds franco-allemand pour le spectacle vivant, Mondes Nouveaux and the French Ministry of Culture. 

With the support of VIVANTO

[images from Klosterruine Berlin, 2024 by Paul Niedermeyer]

recent

28.11.24 until 30.11.24 • performance
Begin / The Mirror [premiere] NEXT festival, Espace Pasolini, Valenciennes, FR

less recent, still present

01.07.24 until 07.07.24 • residency
Begin / The Mirror, residency, Kunstencentrum BUDA, Kortrijk
22.06.24 • performance
Begin / Beguines [here love speaks] presentation at Klosterruine, Berlin.

past

03.06.24 until 14.06.24 • residency
Begin / The Mirror, Residency, Pavillion ADC, Geneva
22.04.24 until 26.04.24 • residency
Begin / The Mirror, Residency, Marseilles, FR
10.07.23 until 22.07.23 • residency
Begin / The Mirror, Residency at La Briqueterie - CDCN du Val-de-Marne, FR
06.05.23 until 12.05.23 • residency
Begin / The Mirror, research residency at Centre d'animation Cambrai, FR