Finding direction by wandering
“Getting lost and disoriented, wondering, not knowing, not having a grip on the world around you, ‘purifying’ through movement, gaining clarity through long-term walking… Not knowing (where you are, who you are, what comes next) makes us modest. Instead of naming and defining everything around us (the tree, the enemy, the sky), an experience of not knowing creates space for perspective, resilience, wonder, and creative impulses.” – Annemijn Rijk
About
The Lab is a sensory installation inspired by the labyrinth and all its myths, in which the disoriented body of the visitor becomes the wandering protagonist through one continuous, seemingly endless movement. The Lab is rooted in choreography and phenomenology, the two practices of maker Annemijn Rijk. Drawing from both sources, the physical body and embodied perception are key in The Lab.
In The Lab, visitors are brought one by one to the rotating, disorienting spiral shape of the labyrinth. The ground here is covered with earth and glow-in-the-dark grains of sand, so that the path to be walked illuminates itself. The walls rotate. This labyrinth is alive. The environment remains so elusive, no step is the same. The senses of visitors are sharpened; they stand firmly with their feet on the ground, can see where they are walking, but at the same time experience a feeling of floating, insignificance and timelessness through the diffuse light and the constant movement of something that surrounds them, that is bigger than them. It makes walking the labyrinth wonderful and unpredictable and puts us as people in perspective.
After a period of wandering, visitors suddenly find themselves in an extensive space. In this last phase, visitors make a crossing, and walk in one long, straight line to the other side of the space. After the compression of the labyrinth, the decompression in the crossing follows. What did the labyrinth evoke in them?
This is also the reason why the title ‘The Lab’ was chosen: It is an abbreviation for both Labyrinth and Laboratory. This labyrinth is also an experiment to acquire skills that we need to create a sustainable future. The audience is the protagonist in this work, but also a ‘lab rat’ who, walking through The Lab, brings new insights into our humanity in the present time.
Wandering is a permanent condition in the Anthropocene with an uncertain outcome. Our task is not to find a way out of the labyrinth of existence, but to learn to deal with this wandering. – Rene ten Bos, professor of philosophy
The aim of The Lab is to let the audience wander. To break the audience out of their usual mode of perception and to invite them to let go of their grip on the world around them for a moment. Wandering without an end point. Surrender. If we cannot understand or frame what we see around us, what is happening inside us? The Lab asks the question, through sensory experience, the body and movement, what else can man be, apart from the ‘animal rationale’ that has coloured our humanity for so many years.
The purpose of getting lost is not to find your way again, but The Lab does offer a chance to find a way within yourself to deal with this wandering. I see The Lab, in addition to an artistic experience, as an exercise in shaping and dealing with an uncertain future. What skills should the human species develop, what responsibility should be accepted, and what beliefs and habits should be let go of, in order to create a world in which this person is at the top of the pyramid of the right to exist, but in which he is an equal part of the circle of all life around him?
The Lab will premiere on September 11, 2025 in the Koepelhal in Tilburg.
Interested in showing The Lab at your location? Contact us.
Artistic and scenographic research (June/July 2024)
CreditsConcept, choreography Annemijn Rijk – Scenographer Theun Mosk – Ruimtetijd – Guides t.b.a. – Music Aura Bouw – Costume design Annemarije van Harten – Technic Producer – t.b.a. Technician Paul Vliets – Creative technic development Cas Dekker- Business manager Milou Vogels – Graphic design Tessa Meeus
In co-production with Schweigman&, Ruimtetijd, Theater de Nieuwe Vorst, Podium Bloos, Schouwburg en Concertzaal Tilburg.
Made with financial support from Het Fonds Podiumkunsten, Provincie Noord-Brabant, Gemeente Tilburg, Theater de Nieuwe Vorst, Schweigman&
