shoe/farm - a family business

 

"What we used to eat, we now put on your feet!"

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In shoe/farm - a family business ‘shoe shop’ and ‘farm’ merge into a fictional family business. Picturesque scenes portray a farm where shoes are grown, harvested, branded, and sold. As daughters of a shoe shop and a farm, Melissa Mabesoone and Oshin Albrecht question how family ties and background influence ideas about labour, class and family. What does it mean to be an heir in addition to being a ‘child of’? Homegrown and self-made?

In buren’s first group performance for the black box, they perform specific tasks as a team and family of four. From a collection of clogs, glass boots, and denim shoes, they shine a light on fetishistic relationships to the shoe and contemplate what it would be like to stand in someone else's shoes. From the low-wage worker in the shoe factory to the have-it-all fashionista. In a playful and layered way, they manoeuvre from a pre-industrial era to late capitalism. 

The performance is situated between music theatre, visual performance, and choreography: with instruments and props that are part of the scenography, they shape music, sound, and rhythm out of work-related actions and assembly-line work. 

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Concept: buren
Performers: Oshin Albrecht, Melissa Mabesoone, Katja Dreyer, Léa Dubois
Lightdesign: Vera Martins
Sound & music: i.c.w. Benne Dousselaere
Outside eye: Charlotte Vanden Eynde
Construction scenography: Sjoerd Van Leeuwen

Extra eyes and ear: Thuy Lê Thi Thu

Costumes: i.c.w. Anthea Demoen
Instruments: i.c.w. Gert Aertsen
Production assistant: Katlijn Vanhulle
Production: Caravan Production
Co-production: Kaaitheater, Kunstencentrum BUDA, STUK, C-takt, de Brakke Grond, KAAP, Theaterfestival Boulevard, Perpodium
With the support of: the Flemish Community and the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest