U.S. Premiere | In partnership with Cincinnati Arts Association | How do we learn about the world? What shifts our views? What do our senses teach us? ‘In Many Hands’ is a real-time exploration of reflection-through-doing.
Recent visitors to Kate McIntosh’s works have been involved in many ways. Some broke apart domestic objects and made new inventions from the fragments (Worktable, 2011). Other audiences examined a kind of collectivity; throwing furniture across the stage, uniting as an orchestra of rain-makers, collecting their own bacteria, and imagining themselves as birds (All Ears, 2013). The invitations in these works sprang from Kate’s ongoing curiosity to bodily involve an audience, and to imagine a social space where individuals might explore their own agency as well as a communality. Her newest project, In Many Hands, wades further into these experiences.
With In Many Hands Kate dives into the tactile and the multi-sensory, inviting the audience to test, touch, listen, search and sniff. This project steps away from the stage – instead bringing the audience into a series of aesthetic sensory situations, and inviting them to experiment with materials and encounter physical phenomena themselves. If one really does learn-by-doing, then what’s learned here is a sensitization of nerves, a tuning of attention, a priming of curiosity. In Many Hands is part laboratory, part safari, part sensotopia - as it unfolds, visitors take their time to engage and explore as they wish, following their noses and curiosities.
As always, Kate’s work is guided by her ongoing fascinations with the misuse of objects, playfulness with the audience and an off-beat humour.
"Kate McIntosh connects the people in her audience without having a word exchanged - without even knowing each other's faces." – tumult
This presentation of In Many Hands is presented with the support of the Vlaamse Overheid, and the Goethe-Institut.
Concept & Direction: Kate McIntosh
Developed in collaboration with: Arantxa Martinez, Josh Rutter
Presented with:Lucie Schroeder
Sound: John Avery
Light & technique: JoëlleReyns
Technical direction tour: Michele Piazzi, Koen De Sager
Artistic advice: Dries Douibi, Gary Stevens
Studio Assistance: Lucie Schroeder
Drawings: Daria Gatti
Production: Sarah Parolin, Linda Sepp
Production assistance:Jana Durnez, Anneliese Ostertag, Mara Kirchberg
Distribution: Sarah Parolin
Finances:Ingrid Vranken
Produced by: SPIN
Cincinnati Volunteers: Alexandra Beckley, Nizza Rodriguez, Tiffany Tran
Coproduction: PACT Zollverein (DE), Parc de la Villette (FR), Kaaitheater (BE), VooruitKunstencentrum (BE), BIT Teatergarasjen (NO), Black Box Teater (NO), Schauspiel Leipzig (DE),théâtre Garonne - scène européenne (FR), far° festival des arts vivants (CH), House on Fire Network (EU), and the Open Latitudes Network (EU).
Supported by: Vlaamse Overheid,Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN), Pianofabriekkunstenwerkplaats (BE), Tanzfabrik (DE)
SPIN is structurally supported by BUDA Kunstencentrum for the period 2017– 2021
Thanks to: Tom Bruwier, Martin Pilz, Andrea Parolin
The CAC and CAA wish to thank: Cincinnati Museum Center, Parlour Salon, Gaiser Bee Company, HJ Benken Florist, Joanna Baker, Julie Humphreville, and Lynn Roman for graciously providing support for these presentations.