Biography
For Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert – aka Robbert Goyvaerts & Frank Merkx – art is a refuge for magic and wonder.
Since 2012, these creative and technical equals effortlessly string together a variety of artistic techniques and forms of expression, building a body of work that can’t be pigeonholed into a single style or medium. Visual art, video work, theatre, performances,… the world of R&F F&R knows no boundaries. These multiple identities are an important part of their artistic practice: they are social workers as well as designers, VR developers, theatre makers and ceramists. In addition to their performances, the duo also creates site-specific installations and can regularly be found in museums, off-spaces and public places with exhibitions and visual interventions.
The awards and honourable mentions they have received in recent years (Horlait Dapsens Prize, British-Italian Celeste Prize, European Start Point Prize) bear witness to their versatility. They were awarded a research grant by the Flemish government for an exchange with Air Alexanderplatz Berlin (DE) and made it to the final selection of Circuit X with their theatre work. For years, they toured internationally under the wings of CAMPO arts centre (BE).
Most recently they have been focusing on their long-term project Table Dialogues, a series of intimate participative performances that combine immersive digital art, analogue actions and technology.
In residentie WOOD
01.05.2025 – 01.05.2025
“In one minute everyone will be in the future”
In the interactive virtual reality performance WOOD, participants embark on a journey exploring the field. It’s a real excursion that explores the tension between control and letting go. Followed by an even more elaborate excursion into an immersive VR world where nothing is as it seems. The journey is built around a tea ritual, where the participants literally drink the wood and dive into symbolic questions that touch upon the mystery of life. Through physical movement and collaboration the spectators grow as a group and together they experience the landscape. People are like points in a network, or parts of an organic mycelium, slowly transcending themselves and becoming part of a shared supernatural reality. Hidden connections are revealed as the boundaries between virtual and real experience become increasingly blurred. What begins as a dark, alienating world eventually unfolds in an explosion of light, shapes and colours.
Following Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert performances of FIRE and EARTH, the Belgian artist duo will now present the third part of their long-term project Table Dialogues, which combines augmented reality, interactive theatre and visual art. Each of these interactive performances focuses on one of the five elements of Chinese wùxíng – earth, fire, water, wood and metal.