Lunatics and Poets is a creative studio based in Amsterdam, founded by Anna Jacobs and Hanna van der Meer. They create work for theatre, film and installation, in which choreography, visual art and fashion merge. Reflecting the current temper of time and making work that is deeply rooted in society. Through movement and fashion, they give form to impermanent identities, emotions and beliefs. They speak a new universal language of gestures, movements and visuals, directly taken from daily life. It is poetic and absurd, light and dark at the same time.
Lunatics and Poets also creates commissioned work for the fashion landscape. As movement directors they represent brand and concept through the human body. They understand branding, camera work and edit and are used to collaborate with filmers, photographers, editors and designers. Not limited to one platform, they build a moving world in film, editorials, campaigns and live events.
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I am a poem, there is no way out
Synopsis
This multi award winning duet is an intimate portrait of identity and anonymity, two seemingly opposites. When so much of our identities are defined by how we are seen, how do you identify with the unseen? What we see and feel is constantly being transformed and redefined. The unknown becomes the known, the invisible becomes the visible and the anonymous reveals itself. The work is set to the powerful prose of Charles Bukowski.
If I never see you again
I will always carry you
inside
outside
on my fingertips
and at brain edges
and in centers
centers
of what I am of
what remains
- Bukowski -
Background
Originally the work was a 5 min. dance film, shot in the large industrial hall of Casco in Amsterdam. The film was selected for Cinedans Festival at EYE Amsterdam. The piece was then extended and translated to the theatre, by imagining what happened before and what would happen after, the first and last sections were created and so it became a black box piece. This version won the Club Guy & Roni Production award at Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition in 2018. Then once more Lunatics and Poets decided to extend the work with a final section. They won the First Prize at the Choreography Competition at Dancefest (2019) and the First Prize in the Choreography Competition at Festival 10Sentidos in Valencia (2020).
The work has also been performed in Theater Rotterdam, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ Amsterdam, Jonge Harten Festival at Grand Theatre Groningen, Amsterdams Theaterhuis and the Artchapel.
Performance: Anna Jacobs, Hanna van der Meer
Light design + Rehearsal direction: Samon Presland
Coats: Sofie d’Hoore, Scotch&Soda, Susan Bijl;
Coat Construction: Anouk Beckers
Music: J hann J hannsson, Tony Anderson, Ryuichi Sakamoto
Text & Title: Charles Bukowski
Voice: Tom O’Bedlam
Photographs: Nienke Elenbaas, Dragan Perkovski
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The People Look Like Flowers at Last
The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Synopsis
Maybe what felt as the living we’ve done so far, hasn’t actually been life. So who knows what happens when we die? Could there be a transit zone, which opens itself up to numerous plots and sequences? Perhaps we sleep forever and die only for a little while.
The People Look Like Flowers At Last is a performance about not wanting to definine The End. Lunatics and Poets imagines a new world and timeline after our live as we know it has passed. We follow different people who are situated in the way-station before the next stage of their experience. Some materialise from the dark and end up in a new indistinct space, others magically transform and are pulled into the next chapter of live.
Background
The People Look Like Flowers at Last is produced by Club Guy and Roni (The Netherlands) The work premiered in May of this year at The Nite Hotel; a digital platform for theatre, dance and music.
Performers: William English, Zaneta Kesik, Simone Peters, Rosie Reith, J sula T. Visser
Light Design: Samon Presland
Sound Design & Composition: Axewood Custom Music
Music: Byn (Gidge), I would like (Deru), I carry your heart with me (E.E Cummings),
Arbakkinn - Island Songs (Olafur Arnalds and Einar Georg Einarsson)
Title & Text: Charles Bukowski
Voice: Rosie Reith
Costume & Set Design: Lunatics and Poets
Hair & Make-up: Roxane Zandijk
Film & edit: Eori Wakakuwa
Photographs: Jesula Toussaint Visser
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Hurry Slowly, but Hurry
Hurry slowly, but hurry is Lunatics and Poets’ bittersweet dance-episode about the inevitable end and our fascination with death as a dark attraction.As a ‘performance tourist’ we travel to the site of an accident, two people balance at the end of their existence. Alternating between light and darkness, life delays and flashes by.
Hurry Slowly, but Hurry is a site specific performance co-produced by Oerol Festival, Over het IJFestival and NITE as part of Het Atelier. The work originated from the context of the locations ofthe island of Terschelling and NDSM Werf Amsterdam and from research on how societies dealwith death. Duration 30 minutes.
Performers: Ada Daniele, Terencio Douw
Music: Axewood Custom Music, B1 (Olafur Arnalds en Nils Frahm), Ranta (Vladislav DeLay),
Strip Light Hate (The Black Dog), Pale Blue Dot (Roger Goula)
Set: Lunatics and Poets
Campaign image: Nichon Glerum
Compilation film & stills: Urbain Studio
Edit: Eori Wakakuwa
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The Long Goodbye
A short film about our attachment to everyday rituals. Framing them in a way that they can be seen as an intimate daily performance. When this becomes merely a physical memory, will we ever understand the traces that we leave behind?Made in lockdown 2020, premiered at Fashion Film Festival Milano January 2021.
Duration
5 min.
Performance: Terencio Douw
Film & edit: Eori Wakakuwa
Dress: Lunatics and Poets
Music: Miraflores (Feathered Sun feat
Christopher Schwarzwalder, Nu & Raz Oharait)
