Het Bos

To celebrate its decennial existence, Het Bos invites a grand group of artists to envision its future. The premise is to approach Het Bos as a resort. This concept does not only refer to an artificial styrofoam idea of a cartoonesque holiday with ongoing buffets, activities and poolchairfights in a subtropical setting located in an isolated dessert. The resort as a mirage. But a resort can just as easily be perceived as a sanctuary or a refuge, which Het Bos has strived to be for everyone the last ten years.

Bostopia is the imaginative outcome of Het Bos as both the mirage and the refuge. Materialized by the never ending and forever expanding network of dreamers, doers, makers, thinkers, drinkers, conceptualists, idealists, opportunists, lovers and haters alike. A buzzing bunch of renowned rennomees, forgotten founders and nifty newbreeds such as Johann Kauth, Nico Dockx, Marlies Vander Straeten, Floris Vanhoof, Delta van Melle, Emilio Lopez, Rune Tuerlinckx, Ria Pacquee, Fleur De Roeck, Ward Heirwegh, Joke van den Hof, Boslabs, Benjamin Verdonck, Smila Zinecker, Anne Beumer, Ayrton Eblé and more.

During the opening of Bostopia on May 16, visitors can enjoy Het Banquet, a culinary installation and food performance by Kato Trappers & Jolien Van Dijk, while the musical performance of Brenda & Wendy sets the mood. A colorful artistparade, curated by Orphea Aerts and Nastia Krasinskaia, will show you the way.

Every day from 12:00-22:00, you can discover TEN YEAR SCULPTURES, the latest video and photo installation by Lotte Boonstra, in which she films 10-year-old children together with the artificial masses that have been added over the last 10 years.

In a poetic video installation Lotte Boonstra portrays ten-year-old children alongside the mass that surrounds them. Not only is the number of people on Earth growing, but also the materials created by humans, such as concrete, plastic, bricks, asphalt, and glass. We are moving towards a turning point where there is more human-made mass on Earth than living biomass. This reality lies at the core of TEN YEAR SCULPTURES. In an associative tangle of costumes, sculptures and images Lotte guides you into an imaginative and distorted universe. A world in which humans appear as the greatest sculptor of Earth’s surface, and where living and dead substance engage in a duet. The installation was created especially for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Het Bos. It is the first installation within a longer trajectory in which the artist explores the relationship between humans and material.

Direction and design: Lotte Boonstra
Scenography assistance: Sven Roofthooft
Video: Martijn Bastiaans
Performers: Maurice Goemaere, Jeanne Vergouts, Matto Swinkels, Stef Bastiaens, Karel Janssens, Alvar Willemyns, Milou Ružić, Warre Degoes, Ode Verleye
Assistance design: Klara Török, Ruby Renteurs, Jan van Rosendaal
Co-production: Het Bos, Theater Artemis

With support from Fonds Nieuwe Makers of the City of Antwerp