top of page

TEXTS AND REVIEWS

Spare Time Work is an intriguing Gesamtkunstwerk, somewhere between children’s television,

the dark absurdism of Tim Burton and philosophical criticism.

Spare Time Work enters the uncomfortable gray zone of how we have silently identified ourselves with
certain ideas about work and leisure, without realizing that they are part of a social straightjacket.


I had many laughs, but was left with the nasty question whether we really want our children to grow up in a world where measuring is the only knowledge. Why shouldn’t play be as well? 'SPARE TIME WORK’ is a nice plea for the latter.


The way our work is constructed is almost the way a dream functions. The way you act in a dream seems logical, a kind of digestion of many things that are happening in your life, things that you read, or saw
online, or in movies, all get mixed, experiences, sensibilities. The differences between right and wrong,
good or bad, are way more mixed. I think the idea of a dream is a bit like the dramaturgy in our work.


buren’s arsenal consists of clearly defined characters who each relate in a specific way to the prevailing im-
age of women, polyvalent props that are constantly rearranged and colorful costumes that are equally multifunctional. This in a tightly choreographed performance style that at the same time leaves enough room for playfulness, all topped with a dash of feminist social criticism.

In buren's world, anything can happen in a Dadaist game of domination and seduction in which the two performers switch between dialogue, song, and dance. The lighting design, sets, and costumes constantly switch between absurd and unexpected situations. “It's like a dream in which you are confronted with your own desires. Reality is never far away because each person is invited to ask where reality ends and the dream begins. Those boundaries are movable.”


 


 


 

De Witte Raaf.jpg
bottom of page