Karel van Laere is a performance and visual artist from the Netherlands, exploring the vulnerability of the human body in contrast to the machine. His work often begins with sincere questions, such as: What would it be like if, just like a computer, you could switch off your body every now and then? What does it feel like to be dependent on a machine or on others? He then uses these enquiries to reach extreme bodily states, situated firmly within a given space, including using non-presence techniques.

For CTM 2020, Karel van Laere will perform his work "The Non-Present Performer," in which he surrenders his limp, hypnotised body to a choreographer and three dancers. In his words: “the closest to what I was looking for seemed to be anaesthesia or an epidural. So I approached an anaesthesiologist. My idea to do a live performance under anaesthesia proved to be impossible. However, the anaesthesiologist did convince me of the power of hypnosis in this context. The result of all this became a performance in which I, hypnotised, handed over my body to a choreographer and three dancers surrounded by a live audience. I asked the dancers to look for physical borders, to experiment, and to make me the subject of their research as “The Non-Present Performer.”

An artist talk / Q&A with van Laere follows the performance. 

Dancers: Jin Young Won, Miguel Toro, and Saul Vega Mendoza
Choreographer: Amos Ben Tal
Hypnotist: Joris Waayer

"The Non-Present Performer" is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.