How LOW can you go?

There is more to Dutch art than Rembrandt and one-eared neurotics, although there is room for them as well. The evidence will be on show in Budapest between 15 February and 12 March during the LOW Festival, a month-long showcase of Dutch and Flemish arts.

The organisers say their aim is to “introduce contemporary Dutch and Flemish culture to the Hungarian public, and to enhance, support and deepen artistic cooperation between the Netherlands, Flanders and Hungary.”

With this in mind, they have roped in 500 artists, who will stage 100 performances in 20 venues around Budapest. There will be classical music, jazz and pop, theatre and film, as well as modern Dutch and Flemish design and contemporary arts.

There will be a multi-media presentation by the avant-garde British film maker Peter Greenaway, best known for the 1989 art house flick The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. For the LOW Festival, Greenaway – whose training as a painter is evident in his approach to film making – will be presenting his multimedia piece Rembrandt’s Mirror, which focuses on the Dutch master’s personal life rather than his paintings. The musical theatre performance takes place at 8pm on 18 February in the Millenáris Theatre, in Millenáris Park next to the Mammut shopping centre at Széna tér.

A huge scale model of the Auschwitz concentration camp (above, centre) will fill the stage of the Trafó Contemporary Arts Theatre (District IX, Liliom utca 41) on 22 and 23 February at 8pm. In the words of the Dutch theatre collective behind the production, Hotel Modern: “The model of the camp is brought to life onstage: thousands of three-inch-tall handmade puppets represent the prisoners and their executioners. The actors move through the set like giant war reporters, filming the horrific events with miniature cameras; the audience becomes the witness.”

In their inter-war heyday, big bands in America would go head to head in competitions of virtuosity. This idea lies behind “Battle of the Big Bands Revisited”. During the performance, the 15-strong Tetzepi Bigtet (above left) – billed as Amsterdam’s leading avant-garde jazz ensemble – will take on the 14-member Flat Earth Society from Flanders. Expect brass to boom everything from swing to free jazz improvisation. Hostilities commence at 7.30 on 17 February in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in the new Palace of Arts (District IX, Komor Marcell u. 1).

Saturday, 8 March is Children’s Day at the Millenáris Theatre from 10am to 6pm. The Dutch dance troupe De Stilte (above right) promises to “take children out of their concrete everyday world into the abstract world of the senses”. Their performance – Madcap – is aimed at children from the age of four and up and focuses on the themes of imagination, friendship and play.

The grand opening of the festival is at 7.30pm on 15 February at the Arts Hall (Műcsarnok) on Heroes’ Square. Among the dignitaries making speeches will be H.R.H. Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. The opening bash will be rounded off with a dance performance by the Budapest Dance Theatre, choreographed by Neel Verdoorn.

An information centre will be open in the Merlin Theatre (District V, Gerlóczy utca 4, Tel. 317-9338) for the duration of the festival. Tickets can be booked online at jegyelado.hu or in person in Libri bookshops and major Concert & Media Kft. ticket offices. Further information in English is available at www.lowfesztival.hu



TicketsConcert & Media Kft. ticket offices
1091 Budapest, Üllői út 11-13.
Tel: 455-9000
Open: Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
1145 Budapest, Torontál u. 30.
Tel: 222-1313
Open: Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday 10 am-2pm

Robert Hodgson
www.budapesttimes.hu - Sunday, January 27, 2008