Anthony van Gog
Anthony van Gog (born Antwerp, 1996) graduated from the Performance programme at the Maastricht Drama Academy in 2019. His work moves at the interface of theatre and visual art. He makes the body, sound and space play a game over and over again. Besides his artistic practice, Anthony is pursuing a master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Antwerp. Since 2023, Anthony has been associated with DansBrabant as a PLAN-maker.
During his PLAN trajectory, Anthony explores the "selfless body" - the idea that we humans have no fixed core, but that identity actually forms by mirroring what happens around us. Self-development is thus no longer a steadily building development, but a "falling in all directions, without any foothold".
Anthony: "I see the body not as 'who' but as 'how'. How does the body appear to us? How does it appear to us? That starts with matter: with the outline of the body, its geometric lines and dimensions. But also the inside of the body, how does it work and what can it do. Imagining a selfless body is a play with all these elements - which interact and fall apart again."
In parallel, Anthony explores the power of bass sound: in what ways can bass take over space and set the spectator's body in motion? crowdkill, the first production to emerge from the PLAN trajectory, premiered in late 2023. In 2024, Anthony will go into residency at the EKWC for further research.
DansBrabant: "Anthony searches for a language of movement that for him touches the essence of being: a body that can be anything and also nothing. Anthony is an original and thoughtful maker, for whom words are important. The floor is his mouthpiece. With his ongoing search for the body as an instrument, he literally and figuratively sets the viewer in motion."
