Recent visitors to Kate McIntosh's works have been involved in many ways. Some broke apart domestic objects and made new inventions from the fragments (“Worktable” installation 2011). Other audiences examined a kind of collectivity - throwing furniture across the stage, uniting as an orchestra of rain-makers, collecting their own bacteria, and imagining themselves as birds (“All Ears” performance 2013).
The invitations in these works sprang from Kate's ongoing curiosity to bodily involve an audience, and to imagine a social space where individuals might explore their own agency as well as a communality. Her new project “In Many Hands” wades further into these experiences.With “In Many Hands” Kate dives into the tactile and the multi-sensory, inviting the audience to test, touch, listen, search and sniff. This project steps away from the stage - instead bringing the audience into a series of aesthetic sensory situations, and inviting them to experiment with materials and encounter physical phenomena themselves. If one really does learn-by-doing, then what's learned here is a sensitization of nerves, a tuning of attention, a priming of curiosity. “In Many Hands” is part laboratory, part expedition, part meditation - as it unfolds, visitors take their time to engage and explore as they wish, following their noses and curiosities.
As always, Kate's work is guided by her ongoing fascinations with the misuse of objects, playfulness with the audience and an off-beat humour.
www.spinspin.be
“… develops a subtle and intelligent community.”
- Bettine Trouwborst, WAZ, 18/10/16“After about 45 minutes, there is probably no one in the room whose hands are not completely filthy… A rare and wonderful offer to concentrate on yourself without losing sight of your fellow human beings.”
- Lisa Kerlin, kultur.kino.ruhr, 17/10/16“Kate McIntosh connects the people in her audience without having a word exchanged - without even knowing each other's faces.”
- Rozemarijn van Kalmthout, tumult, 10/11/16Kate McIntosh (1974) is a Brussels-based artist who practices across the boundaries of performance, theatre, video and installation.
Her works often focus on the physicality of both performer and audience, the manipulation of objects and materials, and the development of direct relations with and between audience members. Kate's practice is guided by her ongoing fascinations with the misuse of objects, playfulness with the public, a love of theatrical images and an off-beat humour.
Originally from New Zealand and trained in dance - since 2004 Kate has developed an internationally recognized body of stage and trans-disciplinary work which tours extensively in Europe as well as to Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.
Her stage works include the performance solos All Natural (2004), Loose Promise (2007), and All Ears (2013) and the group performances Hair From the Throat (2006), Dark Matter (2009), Untried Untested (2012), In Stereo (2015 with Bree Van Reyk) and In Many Hands (2016). Her installation works include the video-installation De-Placed (2008 with Eva Meyer-Keller), and the interactive-installation Worktable (2011).
Within these creations she has invited collaborators such as Tim Etchells, Eva Meyer-Keller, Jo Randerson, Lilia Mestre, Charo Calvo, Diederik Peeters, Minna Tiikkainen, Mikko Hynninen, John Avery and many more.
She is currently an artist in residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels.
Beside her own practice, Kate was a founding member of the Belgian performance collective and punkrock band Poni, and has collaborated as a performer with many directors including Tim Etchells (UK), Wendy Houstoun (UK), Antonia Baehr (DE), and Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre.
Kate holds an MRes in Performance and Creative Research from Roehampton University (UK) and regularly teaches performance practice within various university courses.
Kate is also a founding member (together with Diederik Peeters, Hans Bryssinck and Ingrid Vranken) of SPIN - an artist-run production and research platform in Brussels, which also organizes public gatherings for knowledge exchange.
For further information please visit: www.spinspin.be
Concept & Direction: Kate McIntosh
Developed in collaboration with: Arantxa Martinez, Josh Rutter
Presented with: Lucie Schroeder
Sound: John Avery
Light & technique: Joëlle Reyns
Technical direction tour: Michele Piazzi
Artistic advice: Dries Douibi, Gary Stevens
Studio Assistance: Lucie Schroeder
Drawings: Daria Gatti
Production: Sarah Parolin, Linda Sepp
Finances & distribution: Ingrid Vranken
Production assistance: Jana Durnez, Anneliese Ostertag, Mara Kirchberg
Produced by: SPIN
Coproduction: PACT Zollverein (DE), Parc de la Villette (FR), Kaaitheater (BE), Vooruit Kunstencentrum (BE), BIT Teatergarasjen (NO), Black Box Teater (NO), Schauspiel Leipzig (DE), far° festival des arts vivants (CH), House on Fire Network (EU), and the Open Latitudes Network (EU).
Supported by: Vlaamse Overheid, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN), Pianofabriek kunstenwerkplaats (BE), Tanzfabrik (DE)
SPIN is structurally supported by BUDA Kunstencentrum for the period 2017 – 2021
Thanks to: Tom Bruwier, Martin Pilz, Andrea Parolin