Mikes Poppe

Mikes Poppe
What is past is prologue 2024

During the 2022 festival edition, Mikes Poppe managed to deeply move many a visitor with And the farmer, he plowed on. This year he once again takes us on a journey of the soul. “Together we float through time, like heroic souls defying the waves of the past and dancing on the waves of the present”, says the artist. The title What is past is prologue – taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest – whispers to us that the past is the prelude to the present. Time is an eternal dance of cause and effect, in which the past determines the present and the present in turn seems to be a prelude to the future. A cyclical event that leads to the question: by knowing the past and understanding the present, can we shape the future?

In this performance (stretching over a period of two months), Mikes Poppe goes out on the water, sitting in a beach chair in the heart of a seemingly calm pond. Suddenly everything becomes restless, everything seems to be swallowed by the waves. The trench song We are here, because we are here echoes like an inescapable mantra.

The artist – like a modern Don Quixote – literally endures storms but seems to find himself again and again. Are our physical strength and determination enough to rise as humanity above the brutal play of the elements? This work is a questioning of our collective strength, the bond that allows us to defy fate, to endure adversity and not give up. It raises the question of how we can remain hopeful and take action despite all the worldly threats that appear in our path.

With this work, Poppe again touches on themes from And the farmer, he plowed on. Is the artist enslaved by his artwork? Or is the artwork a form of protest, a symbolic act of rebellion, a warning or perhaps an enchanting cleansing ritual?

The trench song is sung by vocal band Hopchora and Studio Artîlerie led by conductor Alexander Besant. With thanks to Evelien Callens and Pascal Degrande.
This performance came about in collaboration with Amplo, Atlas Copco Rental, Coppenolle, Made in Inox and Valcke Prefab Beton. With the support of the Flemish Government.

Take me back to the Castle Park.