Settlement

The BOX gallery presented the Los Angeles Poverty Department for the third time. For 3 weeks LAPD and the BOX collaborated with dance company SOIT of Brussels, Belgium, to create Settlement, a generative performance project that produces a fictitious community, with a group of performers from LAPD, SOIT and other Angelenos. The creative collective work was directed and guided by Hans van den Broeck and Anuschka von Oppen.

Settlement performers generate a village whose inhabitants occupy an alternative universe separate from the modern world. In the process, they research transitional, societal settings such as: secluded subcultures, gated communities, refugee camps, detention camps, alternative gatherings, sects…etc.  The L.A. Settlement was one of the last. In L.A., Settlement took on a new direction: a ‘virtual settlement’. The page is blank and the place of discovery is the actions, words and demeanor of different adopted characters embodied by the performers. The performers act as agents that travel through time, exploring unconscious archives of souls from the past and present. They resurrect the spirits, inhabiting their visions, thoughts and beliefs. Events, dreams and conflicts are translated into a physical ritualistic release, a living fiction.

Past Settlement projects have been performed in Sydney (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand), Harare (Zimbabwe), Vienna (Austria), and Bastia (Corsica). These Settlement productions are created and developed through the socio-political-cultural framework specific to each performer and city.

Chas Jackson , Carmen Vega, Adrian Turnage, Riccarlo Porter, Walter Fears, RCB , Silvia Hérnandez, Sara Hérnandez, Jesus Davila, José Davila, Amanda Furches, Ian K. Loren, Stephanie Clark, Joyce Lu, Sam Szabo, Anuschka von Oppen, Hans van der Broeck, Henriëtte Brouwers, Sheila Bosman, Zoscha van Erkel, Anthea Llewis.

This project is made possible in part by the Cultural Exchange International (CEI) grants program of the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, KVS in Brussel, The Flemish authorities and The BOX gallery.