I, Hendrik Van Maele, was born in Leuven in 1995. As a four-year-old kid I went to the local circus school (Cirkus in Beweging) and spent countless hours learning different disciplines. In 2017 I completed my studies at ACaPA, Tilburg (Academy for Circus and Performance Art), where I focused mainly on partner acrobatics. Together with Josse De Broeck, Petra Steindl and Felix Zech, we formed the collective Familiar Faces and won the BNG Circus Prize after our graduation. With our first full-length show Surface, we were nominated as winners of Circusnext.
I am driven by the curiosity of daily routines. Circus offers me a framework in which to unravel this everyday reality and express it in a medium that is recognisable to the outside world. My body is my instrument. It is wonderful how diverse the profession is and how different the roles are that go with it. In my artistic practice, I work towards an integrated whole that includes all these faces.
Between January 2021-2023 I work with TENT. There, I explore the relationship between director and performer, circus maker and practitioner. I investigate what it means to be both and how I can make that combination work. By asking the question: "What does the circus practice of the future look like?", I set in motion a process that demands a rethinking of one's own maker's practice, as well as of the way circus looks at itself.
HIS PRESENTATIONS
Muur • 13 Harbinger Road • Ways of being ready
