ethics in aesthetics

On March 15, 2011 Benjamin Verdonck published his Handvest 'Manifesto for the active participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair immovability'.

In an accompanying open letter he asked 'all the employees of the performing arts organisations that receive structural support from the Flemish regime' to adhere for a relatively short period of time (from September 1, 2012 until February vii, 2013) to the rules mentioned in this manifesto. These rules confronted the everyday working routines in the performing arts world with the question of ecological responsibleness. Verdonck, whose oeuvre was supported past the 2 largest Flemish performing arts organisations (the Antwerp city theatre Toneelhuis and its Brussels counterpart KVS), aimed to create a temporary collective playground wherein one could practise and effort to develop more sustainable working practices.

On October 3, 2012, soon after the start of the catamenia mentioned in the manifesto, Verdonck participated in the Modul Trip the light fantastic Conference on 'Ideals in Aesthetics'. Together with the dramaturge Sébastien Hendrickx he brought the following text montage.

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Ideals in Aesthetics. On the 'Manifesto for the agile participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair durability'

By Benjamin Verdonck & Sébastien Hendrickx

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MAIL FROM: GUY COOLS
TO: BENJAMIN VERDONCK, SEBASTIEN HENDRICKX
SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, eight:37 AM

Dearest Benjamin,
Dear Sébastien,

Hope y'all are well. We expect forrard to your presentation next calendar week at the Modul Dance Symposium in Tilburg. We even so expect you lot to come from Antwerp in the morning and travel back the aforementioned twenty-four hour period.
See you before long,

Guy

MAIL FROM: SEBASTIEN HENDRICKX
TO: GUY COOLS, BENJAMIN VERDONCK
SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, 9:55 AM

Beloved Guy,

We take a trouble. Yesterday the Belgian labour unions announced a big railroad strike for Oct 3, the day of our presentation. Benjamin, are we taking the auto Wednesday forenoon or will we travel by train, a 24-hour interval in accelerate? And how will we become back home?

Sébastien

Postal service FROM: GUY COOLS
TO: SEBASTIEN HENDRICKX, BENJAMIN VERDONCK
SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, 10:xvi AM

Dear Sébastien,

Thank you for your quick reaction. How true-blue tin can you be to your own manifesto? Is carpooling an option? Of course you're more than welcome on the opening evening on Monday. Permit us know because in that case we have to gear up yous a hotel.

Guy

Mail service FROM: GUY COOLS
TO: SEBASTIEN HENDRICKX, BENJAMIN VERDONCK
SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, 2:24 PM

Benjamin, Sébastien,

Pascal Gielen is living in Antwerp and he could peradventure requite yous a lift Midweek morning.

Mail service FROM: GUY COOLS
TO: SEBASTIEN HENDRICKX, BENJAMIN VERDONCK
SEPTEMBER 28, 2012, 2:27 PM

There is likewise a bus connection from Antwerp to Tilburg via Turnhout merely this will take you two hours to go here.

OPEN Alphabetic character TO THE FLEMISH PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR
BENJAMIN VERDONCK
MARCH 15, 2011

Dearest,

from September 1, 2012 until February 7, 2013 I want to make a new artwork. I am an artist. The work is chosen 'Manifesto for the active participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair immovability'. To be able to realize this artwork I need your help. (I'm addressing this question to all the employees of the performing arts organisations that receive structural back up from the Flemish regime.) I ask you if you could live up to the articles of this manifesto as best as yous can and only during a short period of fourth dimension: from September one, 2012 until February vii, 2013. (One half of a theatre season.) By signing the manifesto you become a co-creator of my piece of work and as such you tin promote it, criticize it, augment information technology, twist it or sell information technology, just like yous would do with your own work. I'm aware of the fact that my question for participation isn't an piece of cake one, considering the manufactures of the manifesto. As an artist I cartel to enquire information technology because I want to brand a new work. This work. And because I believe the capacity of fine art originates in a capacity every human beingness possesses, more than or less. Maybe.

I await forward to your respond and I greet y'all with warmth and respect,

Benjamin Verdonck

manifesto for the active participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair durability
BENJAMIN VERDONCK
MARCH 15, 2011

TO ALL EMPLOYEES OF A PERFORMING ARTS Organization
RECEIVING Support UNDER THE ARTS Prescript
AND Past EXTENSION TO ALL WHO WISH TO RESPOND TO THIS APPEAL

I'Chiliad ASKING YOU TO Assistance ME CREATE A WORK OF ART

THE Piece of work OF ART CONSISTS OF
ADHERING Inside A Certain PERIOD
AND TO THE All-time OF Ane'S ABILITY
TO THE Following RULES

THE RULES CONCERN THE ACTIONS OF PARTICIPANTS
IN THEIR CAPACITY AS EMPLOYEES OF A PERFORMING ARTS System
AND ARE IN NO Mode COMPULSORY
AS TO THE ACTIONS OF PARTICIPANTS OUTSIDE OF THIS CAPACITY

THE CREATION OF THE WORK OF Art BEGINS ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2012
AT THE First OF THE NEW THEATRE SEASON
AND ENDS ON Feb 7, 2013
160 AND A Half DAYS LATER
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE Same THEATRE Season

Later on COMPLETION OF THE Work OF ART
ALL COMMITMENTS ENTERED INTO DURING ITS CREATION Get VOID

AT THE Showtime OF THE Piece of work OF ART ALL SO-Called 'ECO TEAMS'
OF THE PARTICIPATING PERFORMING ARTS ORGANISATIONS ARE DISSOLVED
And then PEOPLE ARE INVITED
TO MEDITATE ON THE CAUSES OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
BY MEANS OF A Alphabetic character
SENT By THE UNITED NATIONS TO THE ARTISTS GILBERT AND GEORGE
ON THE OPENING OF THEIR EXHIBITION THE NAKED SHIT PICTURES
TO INFORM THEM THAT EXCREMENT FROM THE WEST
STILL CONTAINS SUFFICIENT SALTS AND MINERALS
TO Go on ALIVE FOR 4 DAYS
A THIRD WORLD Child

AT THE Commencement OF THE WORK OF Fine art
Th AS 'VEGGIE DAY'
IS RESCINDED
THAT Twenty-four hours IS SERVED A Option OF
STEAK AND FRIES OR LEMON SOLE WITH 'POMMES DAUPHINE'
THE PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS ARE And then ASKED Non TO SERVE
Any MEAT OR FISH DISHES
IN THEIR STAFF CANTEEN ON THE OTHER DAYS OF THE Calendar week
ANY EMPLOYEE HAVING A MEAL OUT OF THE Part WHILE ON THE JOB
WILL As well Abstain FROM CONSUMING Whatever MEAT OR FISH, EXCEPT ON THURSDAYS

AFTER THE START OF THE Piece of work OF Fine art
ALL PROMOTION MATERIAL Deemed NECESSARY
FOR PRODUCTIONS PREMIERING Within THE STATED PERIOD
Volition BE PRINTED IN Blackness LETTERS ON UNBLEACHED RECYCLED Paper
THE SHARE OF THE COMMUNICATION Budget SAVED THIS WAY
WILL BE USED COLLECTIVELY AT THE End OF THE STATED Catamenia
TO RENT ONE OR MORE BILLBOARDS
ON WHICH Volition BE WRITTEN ON A WHITE BACKGROUND
IN UPSIDE-Downwardly Blackness Letters:
'Nosotros AGREED ON EVERYTHING'

AT THE Get-go OF THE WORK OF ART
PARTICIPANTS WILL Exist ASKED
TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND/OR A BICYCLE
TO TRAVEL TO AND FROM Work
PARTICIPANTS NEEDING TO WORK
AFTER PUBLIC Ship HAS STOPPED RUNNING
WILL Exist OFFERED A Place TO SPEND THE NIGHT
ANY PARTICIPANT MAY INVOKE Upwardly TO 3 TIMES FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES
IN ORDER TO Return Domicile USING A TAXI SERVICE

AT THE Commencement OF THE WORK OF Fine art
PARTICIPANTS Will BE ASKED
TO CREATE Trip the light fantastic toe OR THEATRE PIECES
WITHOUT A Set up
OR
WITH A SET
BUT I Congenital OF MATERIALS
ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE ORGANISATION
Earlier Information technology AGREED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WORK OF ART

SPECIFICALLY FOR TRAVELLING PERFORMANCES
THE Post-obit Dominion APPLIES
THE Gear up
(WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE EQUIPMENT PRESENT AT THE HOST THEATRE)
SHOULD Be OF A SIZE
Assuasive THE CAST AND TECHNICIANS
TO CARRY ITS PARTS SAFELY AND COMFORTABLY
WHILE TRAVELLING
THE Amount SAVED ON THE Fix Upkeep
SHOULD BE USED TOWARDS EMPLOYING Boosted Functioning ARTISTS

AT THE Starting time OF THE Work OF ART
PARTICIPANTS UNDERTAKE
Not TO TRAVEL Past AIR
NOR TO RECEIVE
Whatsoever Visitor USING AIR TRAVEL
NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE ARE POSSIBLE
UNLESS THE PARTICIPATING System CONTENDS
THAT AN INTERNATIONAL Tour IS ESSENTIAL
TO FINANCIALLY ENSURE ITS Continued Beingness
OR
UNLESS A PARTICIPANT IS IN POSSESSION OF A Band
HE TWISTS Around THE FINGER
MAKING HIM INVISIBLE
WHILE Flight
AND DOING THIS
TWICE ON A EUROPEAN Flying
AND
ONCE ON A TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT
WHEREUPON THE ADVANTAGED PARTICIPANT
UNDERTAKES TO
HOWL LIKE A DOG
EVERY Night
FOR A MONTH
Upwards TO THREE TIMES A Dark

IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
IF THE Entire PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR
PARTICIPATED CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND ASSIDUOUSLY
FOR 160 AND A HALF DAYS
IN THIS WORK OF Art

WHAT A CATHEDRAL OF SKEINS OF DISSONANCE AND DIALECTICS
WHAT AN EPIPHANY OF POSSIBILITIES
FUNDAMENTALS GAMES JOY AND SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
THIS WOULD GENERATE
FOR OUR FUTURE ARTISTIC Exercise
REMEMBERING COCTEAU
WHO
WHEN ASKED
WHAT HE WOULD Accept WITH HIM IF HIS HOUSE WAS ON FIRE
ANSWERED
THE Fire

REACTION BY STEVEN VANDERVELDEN ii
(ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE ARTS Heart STUK, LEUVEN)
MARCH 21, 2011

Dearest Benjamin,

Step one is the easiest: forwarding your manifesto to all employees of STUK. Consider that done! But step ii is a bit more than hard. And step 3, 4, 5, six fifty-fifty more! Simply we'll come back to you lot, that's a hope!

REACTION BY ARLETTE VAN OVERVELT
(THEATRE Director, CIE LUXEMBURG, ANTWERP)
MARCH 24, 2011

Hi Benjamin,

thanks for your manifesto. I've started reading 'Terra Reversa' by Peter Tom Jones after you mentioned it in an interview. The book is confronting for me every bit I was living my life without a lot of second thoughts about its ecological affect. I just wanted to let yous know I'm busy with your question. I'll come up back to you soon.

REACTION Past GEERT SIX
(THEATRE DIRECTOR, UNIE DER ZORGELOZEN, KORTRIJK)
MARCH 20, 2011

Some of the rules in your manifesto we're already putting into do for some time. For instance, most of our scenery is a collection of found stuff, that we're thus giving a new life. And our costumes are mostly second hand clothes. Just when it comes to nutrient, I must acknowledge I personally cannot adhere to the rule because vegetarianism, even non for half a theatre flavor! I'm fond to meat, yous know! And past the fashion, are nosotros going to save the world with mayonaise? Let's be serious here! When I was a child I prayed for days and days and days for Jesus to requite me a wheel. When I noticed my prayers didn't work I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

REACTION By DOMINIQUE WILLAERT
(THEATRE Manager, VICTORIA DELUXE, GHENT)
APRIL 12, 2011

I forwarded your manifesto to all my colleagues, only I still didn't receive any reaction from whatsoever of them. Probably because they are busy. Always besides busy, busy, decorated. According to me, our constant lack of fourth dimension is an illustration of the fact that the art sector has incorporated the ethics of the costless marketplace. We're all working on our own projects, hoping for adulation, trying to differentiate ourselves from the others, etcetera. I recall your manifesto is a skillful beginning to move towards a more than sustainable arts practice. There'southward only one thing I would like to stress. Next to changing our routines we also need to formulate a radical critique on a systemic level. Small-scale ecological changes are not enough. We really demand to question the electric current status quo and propose alternatives to the hegemony of capitalism.

REACTION BY GUY DERMUL
(ACTOR AND THEATRE Manager, KVS, BRUSSELS)
MARCH 28, 2011

Dear Benjamin,

you lot ask others to help you realise your artwork. Merely as a coproducer I don't accept any say near the work and virtually how it should be fabricated. Your manifesto is very dogmatic. One is obliged to follow your rules. I consider your manifesto a product of our fourth dimension, in which the smoker, the carnivore, the car driver and other scapegoats are existence banished. Further more, you force everybody to copy your own arte povera style. I think every artist is free to work as he pleases. The only rule in your manifesto which really matters is the prohibition to travel by airplane. Just this would take gigantic and unjustified consequences for our window on the globe. And the last thing which disturbs me is that your artwork is limited in time. So subsequently Feb 7, 2013 we can just get on wasting energy? Is that a solution?

REACTION Past GUY CASSIERS
(THEATRE Manager, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF TONEELHUIS, ANTWERP)
APRIL 24, 2011

Dear Benjamin,

thanks for your manifesto. Just like every artwork it'south a suggestion to rethink reality. Your manifesto addresses me in two means. As a citizen and the head of a performing arts organisation it'due south my duty to develop more sustainable ways of working. We already take some projects running at Toneelhuis to tackle our wastes of energy and textile. Simply as an artist I'one thousand convinced it's important to continue tour abroad. This means transporting scenery and people, fifty-fifty if a testify is scheduled to be played only in one case in a certain theatre. And I likewise believe information technology'south important that our theatre in Antwerp can welcome a lot of new performances past artists who go the opportunity to freely develop their own artistic practise.

REACTION Past ALEXANDER NIEUWENHUIS
(PERFORMING ARTIST, AMSTERDAM & BRUSSELS)
APRIL 27, 2011

I suggest to utilise zeppelins for international tours instead of airplanes. One could imagine painting the name of the internationally renowned dance company 'ROSAS' on a zeppelin and edifice a rehearsal studio underneath the airship. This would be the most beautiful studio ever built. In 4 to 6 weeks ane could achieve a skyscraper in Shanghai or Rio, unroll a rope ladder and descend. I heard a zeppelin is non then expensive.

REACTION BY BART MEULEMAN
(THEATRE Managing director, TONEELHUIS, ANTWERP)
MAY 1, 2011

Honey Benjamin,

I just wanted to say I'grand not going to sign your manifesto. This doesn't mean I'm non concerned most our environment. I only think the globe doesn't alter for the ameliorate through artistic or symbolic actions. The world will only change when somebody realises he can make money out of it. Is that a problem? No, I don't think and so. Well of form, information technology's a pity money is our main motivation. But good intentions won't help united states farther.

REACTION BY JAN LAUWERS IN A NEEDCOMPANY NEWSLETTER
(THEATRE DIRECTOR, NEEDCOMPANY, BRUSSELS)
MAY 3, 2011

'Fine art that pretends to be anything other than itself is bad art. Beauty is liberty in advent.' Schiller wrote this two hundred years ago, though at the time he was extremely ill and surrounded by revolutionaries. But no ane is troubled by the fact that many people in the governments of European states would at present like to abolish art. Because this is an impossibility. One might merely besides desire to abolish existence in beloved or beingness ill.
And so nosotros are carrying on and it'south going well.
All's well with Needcompany. Excellent in fact. We travel from country to country and are warmly welcomed everywhere. We have never before had then many offers, received so many prizes, and pleased so many people. The fine art we create is more often than not considered of a high standard and sometimes even life-changing. And we earn plenty of money from information technology. That's what it's all about in this earth.
So our trivial worldwide company is doing well. Until nosotros received that letter of the alphabet from Benjamin Verdonck. Another Flemish artistic creator. And someone close to my heart. A naive jester in a kingdom that's too small. He wants to create one big greenish collective piece of work of art in 2012. I quite agree. A piffling teasing: saving the planet by turning ultra-nationalist. No more travel. Showing just the arts fabricated here in our region. No more trips by air. No globalised sense of peace just acts of tribal violence. Anybody for themselves, in their own back garden. Away with Eurotrash and intercontinental cooperation. No more sets that have to be transported by polluting lorries. No energy-devouring lighting designs. Making theatre in a bare space with just a unmarried light bulb and a performer. Information technology's alright with me. In fact I'm one of the best at it. And at the same time nosotros would be rid of those irritating djembés. Fine art is ecology, fine art is politics, art is anything but art. After all, Schiller is too ill to turn over in his grave.
In the same mode as faith sold well for a time, and every testify that had annihilation to do with the Koran or the Bible sold like organic hot cakes, now it's 'ecology'. No electricity. No prepare. What happens on stage isn't important. It is ecologically audio, so it'south practiced, and what's more than it'due south cheap!
All into the darkness together. And if you commit an error, against ecological law, you are punished. Such as howling like a dog iii times. Every evening for a month. Penance. We'll e'er exist Cosmic and Flemish.
Everything's going very well for Needcompany and we are withal green backside the ears, which we close off with the used earplugs we accept collected on intercontinental air trips and so as not to hear our own crying.
All'southward well with Needcompany, but it should be better.
Beauty is a freedom that we accept to acquire to see.

Letter of the alphabet TO THE EMPLOYEES OF KVS, BRUSSELS
BENJAMIN VERDONCK
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Love people from KVS,

Next Monday you all make up one's mind whether or not KVS will sign the 'Manifesto for the agile participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair immovability'. And whether or non this volition be mentioned in the subsidy awarding you have to hand in by the end of this month. First of all, thank you for considering my question seriously. I know there's a lot of reasons for saying 'no'. There's only one argument I tin can bring up against such a refusal. Namely, I'chiliad convinced of the necessity to experiment with new ways to relate ourselves to the big shifts surrounding united states of america. And working in a cultural establishment subsidized by the government should enable united states to do and so. A theatre shouldn't exist a commercial enterprise. Information technology'due south not obliged to brand profit. This position generates a relative liberty to experiment and to search for alternatives. Of course I'm not sure if adhering – for one-half a theatre season – to the rules I mention in my manifesto will take us whatsoever farther. A month ago I asked a young academic specialized in ecology how humankind should bargain with the big worldwide shifts and he answered: 'it should withdraw gracefully'.

Open LETTER BY THE EMPLOYEES OF KVS
PUBLISHED IN THE BIMONTHLY Plan BROCHURE KVS EXPRESS
SEPTEMBER 2012

Workspaces for more than than threescore employees and performing artists, ready construction, communication (on paper), performances at home and on tour, and much more: a visitor like the KVS is no lightweight when it comes to energy employ. The high figures thrown up by thorough monitoring spoke for themselves, and the rather depressing reports on our surround became a topic of conversation on our shop-floor likewise.
At that place was an urgent need for a commitment to exist more than economical with free energy sources and to be more careful in our contact with the environment, and in 2005 the KVS Ecoteam was set up up. With its varying members information technology examined the various areas where improvements could or had to be made. With the help of Ecolife, the start concrete plans were fabricated and results achieved.
Now, nigh vii years subsequently, plenty of so-chosen 'low-hanging fruit' has already been picked in the form of changes that organisations can brand quite chop-chop and easily in the short term: LED lighting, energy-saving buttons, thorough sorting of waste, Vegetarian Thursdays, FSC paper and so on. And work on all this carries on undiminished.
In March 2011 Benjamin Verdonck presented his 'Manifesto for the active participation of the performing arts sector in the transition towards a fair durability' for active participation past the performing arts in a transition to fair sustainability.
In this certificate the artist listed a number of items that would make the art concern more sustainable, and he asked the whole Flemish performing arts sector to stick to these rules for a particular period: 1 September 2012 to 7 February 2013.
The Ecoteam has put this 'Manifesto' at the heart of all the work done at the KVS, and this gave rise to renewed and far-reaching discussions in which many of u.s., employees in every section of the organisation, are taking part. For a brusk fourth dimension we seriously considered signing the 'Transmission', but subsequently an initial study of the bodily bear on of this on the work of the KVS, that programme was shelved. After all, this impact already turned out to be considerable – in the areas of financial direction, day-to-day operations, the KVS's international project, etc. For virtually employees it was as well much, too soon and also likewise short. The time limit – 160 days – met with a lot of incomprehension. And although the 'Manifesto' was intended as an invitation to join in the process of thinking, to play and to experiment, many experienced it as an aggressive top-down decision in which they had had no say.
Instead of shock therapy to drive a sustainable transition in the KVS, we opted for a somewhat more gradual grade with a bottom-upwards approach. The Ecoteam, which includes representatives of every department in the organisation, made grateful use of the renewed energy and last season worked on a series of ideas we would like to see realised by 2020. iii This listing is past no means complete or definitive, and remains a little vague hither and at that place, merely over the next few years it volition be adjusted, focused and added to. We shall inform you at regular intervals about developments in the KVS 2020 process, which volition move forward by trial and error somewhere betwixt dream and reality.

We are largely ignorant but eager to learn, and therefore invite you to add substance and comment to this process. If you feel the phone call, you can always postal service us at ecoteam@kvs.exist.

Kind regards, the whole KVS team.

QUOTES FROM A REACTION Past
THE ARTS Eye SCHELD'APEN, ANTWERP
MARCH 20, 2012

Howdy Benjamin,

just to tell you we're in. We sign the manifesto. All of united states of america. No thank you, yous're welcome! It'southward not the first time we adjust our own routines out of necessity. We have to adapt our working routines all the time, even when we don't consider it necessary, when we're confronted with regulations regarding public safety for example, or public health, youth protection, copyright, and so on. And we usually as well dare to take into account upkeep cuts, weather atmospheric condition and audience preferences. Now when some theatre dude passes by and asks the states if nosotros would similar to participate in an artwork, a temporary experiment to save our planet (imagine!), we don't have any troubles with that. On the contrary, information technology heats upwardly our hearts and drives us a little bit crazy. Our work will not suffer from it, it will simply be different.

And so the small arts center Scheld'Apen turned out to be the only organisation signing the manifesto and trying to put its rules into practice. Looking dorsum, the employees consider the feel to have been worthwile. It made them more enlightened of the ecological impact of their work and encouraged them to do information technology differently. In its plough, the KVS 2020 process proved to exist a very slow one. Evidently it's less like shooting fish in a barrel for a large institution with more than lx employees to change its course. However, 2020 is still a long way to go…
Benjamin Verdoncks manifesto aroused a lot more critical debate than it generated enthusiast action. Time and over again, ecological responsibility collided with artistic autonomy. In an interview, the artist stated: 'Artistic liberty is always express, only within these limits in that location are endless possibilities. Often limits fifty-fifty help the states to run across new possibilities. Artistic freedom is very clearly conditioned by a upkeep for case. Really ecological limits should weigh every bit much as financial ones, every bit we only have i planet.'