The Greek gods are essentially a kind of patchwork family, says Wim Vandekeybus. The Flemish choreographer is committed to his new performance Infamous Offspring (‘notorious offspring’) engrossed in the excesses of the inhabitants of Olympus; parents, children and a (half) brother who was banished by mother Hera because he was lame.
“He, Hephaistos, is also the only one who simply works,” says Vandekeybus (60) via video connection. “The other gods do nothing but murder, cheat and jump on each other. But Hephaistos makes himself indispensable to his family with his talent – he is a blacksmith – and is thus able to ultimately take revenge on his mother.”
Existing writings rarely form the starting point for Vandekeybus’ work, and clarity and chronology are not his element. And yet he is a real storyteller, always attentive to the behavior and relationships of people who are under pressure or at physical risk. How do the instincts that arise translate into the body? That is the question he has been asking himself since his overwhelming debut choreography What the body does not remember (1987).
The Greek myths provide ample inspiration for such stressful situations. “They are mirrors of the present, full of violence, hypocrisy and ambition. You can recognize them all in the age-old archetypes: the contemporary businesswoman, the addict, the hypocritical politician.”
The often surreal character of the myths fits Vandekeybus’ intuitive, associative and visual way of working; he is also a photographer. In the almost four decades that his career has now spanned, he has developed a completely unique style, which is actually more of an amalgam of styles, genres, media and disciplines in a radical hybrid.
Enter the texts Infamous Offspring are by poet Fiona Benson, who in her collection Vertigo and Ghost highlighted the dark sides of the Greek gods. Music and songs were provided by Warren Ellis and the Dirty Three and sung by the Flemish-Turkish singer Ilayda Cicek with her group ILA. The supreme gods Hera and Zeus (actors Lucy Black and Daniel Copeland) speak from movie screens high above the stage to each other and to their bickering descendants, who, in addition to a mutual struggle, also try to fight out the generational conflict.
Charcoal sketches
The renowned flamenco innovator Israel Galván also appears on film, in full metallic paint, as the blind seer Tiresias. “In a patchwork family you often have the uncle as a kind of third power, in a triangle with the parents,” says Vandekeybus. Galváns Tiresias communicates like an oracle: in rhythms. Not with his feet, but only with hands and torso. “Ah,” sighs the choreographer admiringly, “you should come and see Galván alone.”
All the dramas downstairs on the floor are sketched out on enormous sheets of paper by Hephaistos (artist and contortionist Iona Kewney), who keeps Hera informed. It is a typical Vandekeybus find, a reversal – from man to woman, from forging to charcoal sketches – with which he creates his own version and breaks away from the existing story.
“It is a puzzle that you as a spectator have to solve yourself. Everyone will recognize something from their own life in family relationships.” Vandekeybus himself is also part of a patchwork family, albeit one that has entered more peaceful waters. He regularly sees his two ex-partners, the mothers of his two sons. Son Fernando Vandekeybus, also a filmmaker like his father, even contributed to the performance. “A lot of things have happened, but there is respect. The situation is very fluid, that’s what keeps us together I think, nothing is really broken. And generational conflict? When Fernando addresses me as ‘dad’ during work, I think ‘oh yes’. Then we’re just working partners. I feel more like a brother.”
After the premiere two weeks ago in Luxembourg, many people made the connection with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, he says. But a clear message cannot really be identified in the multitude of images and stories Infamous Offspring, or it is the tragedy of the human pursuit of justice. “Justice is a major theme in mythology, both the pursuit of it and its failure. And today we fail so grandly. During the final rehearsals I was completely confused; what else can I say in the theater about human tragedy? It’s outside already beyond whatever you can imagine.”