GEDACHTEGANG
Jakobe Geens & Margot Jansens
Jakobe Geens is a visually oriented circus artist who focuses on sculpting atmospheres in an array of ways. Together with Margot Jansens - production worker and dramaturge - they created GEDACHTEGANG, a circus company that aims to question expectations, habits and patterns present in society. ‘Gedachtegang’ means ‘train of thought’ which is at the center of the companies philosophy: “a line of thought from the past, which we need to form the present, implying that the thought may lead to something else in the future.”
What inspires you?
“The ability to create imaginary realities that become a reality during a process.”
Do you consider your art in relation to your identity or life?
“Yes very much, what we make is a concentrated liquid version of what we experienced, collected in a flubber that we splash in your face on stage and the audience can take it in how they want or wipe it off. But we secretly hope it’s sticky.”
Why circus?
“It's the most beautiful place to be. It is a community where we feel at home, where you get challenged but cared for at the same time. We both started with the circus as kids as a recreational activity and found our own path in the circus community: Jakobe as a performer and Margot as a dramaturg.”
Performing at ‘Smells like Circus’:
‘Distort the Body’
Concept and performance: Jakobe Geens
Production and dramaturg: Margot Jansens
Costumes: Linea Mattei
Coaching: Mat Voorter
Music: Aram Abgaryanvoor/ KRANKK
Supporting partners: Danspunt, Theater Froefroe, De Machinerie en Festival Circolo
“We intend to make the spectator aware of their own gender-specific expectations by extracting the costume pieces from their related gender. In this way, she makes the difference clear between the construction and the material being of the body.”
In Distort the Body, gender norms are questioned. This happens on the basis of costumes designed by the Swedish Linnea Mattei. These costumes are an absurd magnification of the typically feminine and masculine characteristics. Giant breasts, a small waist for the woman, and broad shoulders and overdeveloped calves for the man.
The project started in Sweden where Jakobe met Linnea Mattei, the costume designer, and felt attracted to the performativity of the costumes. She researched movement material focused on gender performance for three years. After Jakobe met Margot, they used the research of Jakobe as the basis for the performance Distort the body.
Expanding these outward features reveals societal expectations and their limitations. Jakobe examines the literal physical limits of this ‘borrowed body’ on the basis of her acrobatic background, which she acquired in Acapa (Tilburg) and Doch (Stockholm - a world-renowned circus university within the circus world).
How does an exciting pencil skirt or a disproportionate bosom influence a handstand or walkover, but also the daily activities of a woman? How wide should it run so that the prosthetic “men's calves” don't rub against each other? What happens if you start messing with the standards? If you put things in a different perspective? If you exhibit yourself as a person? Searching for it, feeling comfortable in your own skin or not, thinking “Am I animalistic”, “Do I come from Mars”, “Am I some sort of superhero”? Or Just very human? “We intend to make the spectator aware of its own gender-specific expectations by extracting the costume pieces from their related gender. In this way, she makes the difference clear between the construction and the material being of the body.”
“This summer we had a lot of beautiful moments when we toured in elderly homes in the Netherlands. There was an old man, Kees, who wanted to share his yodelling skills and told us that he still has a drum in his room. ‘Distort the body’ had sparked some kind of remembrance of his love for performing in him, which really touched us. Another moment was a woman who came to us after a performance and told us she really identified with the part where Jakobe rests her breasts on the cube and relaxed because the weight is off. There were a lot of mixed responses, which was hard sometimes and sometimes very moving.”
Future projects
GEDACHTEGANG is currently creating BLOOT, a black box solo performance in which they ask the question: How does a woman position herself, and as she perceived, by concealing and revealing her body? They will approach this question through the medium of acro dance, but also belly dance, illusions and flamenco. This will premiere in October 2022 in vitrine Perplex, Kortrijk.