Geert Belpaeme

Name: Geert Belpaeme — Imaginary numbers
Start: 2025-12-13T15:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-12-13T17:00:00+01:00
Location: CAMPO Nieuwpoort

Imaginary numbers

VIERNULVIER & Festival van de Gelijkheid

Fri 12.12

20:00 - 22:00

CAMPO Nieuwpoort, Gent

Nieuwpoort 31/35

Tickets

Sat 13.12

15:00 - 17:00

CAMPO Nieuwpoort, Gent

Nieuwpoort 31/35

Tickets

Research on the critical potential of clowning and the inherent violence of counting

We are counting all the time: when we are in the store, when we read the clock, when we dance, when we hold our breath to stop the hiccups. But also when we decide how many asylum seekers can be accommodated or when we try to map the extent of a natural disaster.

'Imaginary numbers' is about the violence that is inherently present in counting: in calculating, encompassing, containing, excluding, and making binary a complex and multiple existence to fit it into a stable worldview. We want to unhinge the stability of that counting, both by disrupting the subject that counts, by giving a voice to the counting object, and by letting the numbers derail. Because how tangible is that counting? How real are the numbers we use to count? 'Imaginary numbers' seeks the imaginary numbers that permeate the attempts to calculate our life, our desires, and our future.

part of Festival van de Gelijkheid

In 'Please (don’t) let me be (mis)understood', Geert Belpaeme and Estefanía Álvarez Ramírez collaborate once again. 'Imaginary numbers' is a performance on the border between contemporary clowning, dance, and theater about the aggression of counting.

Two clowns balance themselves and each other on a life-sized seesaw. Through the constant up-and-down movement, they feel like traders on a scale. However, they still need to figure out what they are trading and how it works. As time passes, the figures realize that they are not only trading but are also, above all, the goods themselves. They are part of a calculation, a ticking algorithm, a hollow system full of inequality.

Concept and creation Geert Belpaeme I Play Geert Belpaeme and Estefanía Álvarez Ramírez I Dramaturgy Marie Peeters I Light Ezra Veldhuis I Image direction Bosse Provoost I Performance coach Piero Ramella I Circus coach Raff Pringuet I Distribution GOOD COMPANY I Production l’hommmm I Coproductie Circuswerkplaats Dommelhof and Perpodium I In collaboration with Miramiro, BUDA, STUK, De Nieuwe Vorst, KAAP and c o r s o I With the support of the Flemish government and the Tax Shelter of the Belgian federal government