http://www.kunst-werk.be/

Kunst/Werk is a dance organisation that revolves around the choreographers Marc Vanrunxt and Salva Sanchis and the C&H collective, which comprises Heike Langsdorf, Christoph Ragg and Christophe Meierhans. In the Kunst/Werk cooperative, each artist follows an independent artistic path. Kunst/Werk produces performances, as well as undertaking research and related projects, almost all in the fields of modern dance and performance art.

Marc Vanrunxt’s work is based on radical choices. In every project he starts up or undertakes with other partners, he questions the basic principles of his oeuvre. This quality makes his works recognisable and also highly individual. His work above all demonstrates that taking the mapping out of movement as a starting point can result in an oeuvre that is open-ended: dance itself is always an open question, and each of the disciplines involved in a production – music, art, performance – is given great autonomy in the part it plays in outlining a complete production. Over the next four years, Marc Vanrunxt intends to reconnect with dance itself, and with choreography.

Salva Sanchis’ working approach is similar: for him, dance itself is also central, although in his case his starting point is usually a desire to let choreography coincide with the passion of movement itself. This results in pieces that revolve around improvisation, both in the dance itself and in the music. Over the past few years, the relationship between improvisation and planned movement has gained complexity in Sanchis’ work, and he wants to continue working along these lines. According to him, choreography can join with movement itself, and that’s why he would like to redefine the all too sharp distinction that’s often made between the actual movement material and its choreography.

C&H makes its premise the physicality of dance and performance, and thus structurally questions the logic of a dance or performance company. Over the next few years, C&H aims to concentrate on a few larger projects/productions. In addition, the three members would also like to take on more commissions: the collective plans to challenge cultural institutions and media to come up with their own commissions. It thus hopes to redefine both the role the institution and the artists/performers play, and their sense of independence.

Kunst/werk is also an active participant in research and education. Marc Vanrunxt is a visiting professor on the dance course at the Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen – Koninklijk Conservatorium. Every two years, he also coaches in the first cycle at P.A.R.T.S., as well as coaching colleagues, including C&H, Salva Sanchis, Fabian Barba, Ann Van den Broek, Hans Bryssinck and Diederik Peeters, Roy Peters and Ula Sickle. Furthermore, Vanrunxt sees contact with other creatives as an essential part in the development of his own choreographic oeuvre. His coaching does not follow a fixed pattern: he develops a new working method for each project, depending on the ambitions of the individual artist.

Salva Sanchis teaches at P.A.R.T.S. Beginning in September 2009, he will be coordinating the second cycle for two years. He also teaches master-classes and workshops both in Belgium and abroad. When he reflects on his new creations, Salva Sanchis realises that his activities as a teacher and workshop supervisor have a crucial effect on his choreographic work. His insight into his own way of working is deepened, and finding the right performers becomes easier.

Heike is developing radical_hope, a research project about artistic behaviour, artistic ways of working and the artistic perspective. She is being supported in this by Kunst/Werk at A.P.T. in Antwerp. Working from an artist’s point of view, she wants to re-examine how she can infiltrate, open up and even generate social contexts.