PHILIPPE BELOUL

Welcome Home can be described as a piece where one encounters a man in his space, home or work, doing things and being surrounded by his daily routines. It is a 'piece', presented to an audience, starting and ending, with a certain duration. There is no 'story', in a narrative sense, even if the elements are of an 'ordinary' kind. The elements and material may, in this sense, be concrete or belonging to a 'narrative understanding', but the construction of the piece is rather abstract. The 'stage area' is the whole space where the piece is being presented. This means that the audience set-up may vary a little according to the different spaces. One may understand the viewing of this piece to be 'frontally', even if the piece evolves, at times, also around and underneath. The space of working and presenting is of interest to me, and always plays a role in how the work is developing and being constructed.
I have made two versions, or etappes, of this work until now. Each period consisted of a working period in a space, and an informal presentation and feedback session, in the end. (Nadine and Kaaitheater in Brussels in 2005.) The piece is being constructed in the time of working on it, in this way to say the process becomes the work, the project. There are ideas and materials that I explore and play with, and all this is taking place and being build during the process or pratice of doing.
In the idea it will remain a piece which will be presented in an 'ordinary space', or at least with a space set up which adapts to that. This means that the piece may still have a 'space specific' approach, or capacity to adapt, but the construction of the piece as such, will be defined to a great extent.
In my idea it is how things are ordered and organized, and how they are presented, that the piece is about. I use both existing, sampled material from music and film, I use computer programmes and softwares, and I use choreographic procedures which I mix and use together in different ways.This material, and how this is played with, or treated, is to some part the content of the piece.
The time and events of the world in which we live is evidently a big influence, a source of inspiration and questionning, both in my work, and how I see it possible to work. How things are organized in our lives, in our society, and how we relate to things that surrounds us.
Welcome Home is a solo piece. I am alone both on stage and in creating the work. For the development of this project, I have had several encounters with persons engaging in my process, and with whom I have shared different ways of 'working together'. I have not constructed a 'team', where we all collaborate and have shared or different responsibilities, but rather a proposal of relations to the work and to, or via, me. This way of working is still in development, and is being defined as the project is evolving. My intention is to try to open up and share a process and a questionning, and to try to formulate and build a 'continuous' dialogue together with them, may the communication take place in different ways, forms, and intensities. In this way I am interested to find ways of working for Welcome home, and to develop an artistic engagement in a broader sense.