Mystica

A ritual inspired by female mystics: floating hair hangers and choir singers seek connection together ‘Mystica’ is a ritual that gives a voice to eight mystical women who lived between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. The surviving texts of Hildegard von Bingen, Mirabai, Teresa van Avila, Sun Bu’er and others were rewritten into modern poetry by Elisa Demarré and interwoven into a contemporary polyphony by Timo Tembuyser. Floating hair hangers and choir singers seek connection together as a community that learns to speak a shared language again. What do the words of these female spirits awaken in us today? ‘Mystica’ is a performance by MOVEDBYMATTER (DAR, BITBYBIT) and Muziektheater Transparant directed by Kasper Vandenberghe, in which circus and music theater meet. On bass lines composed by Jens Bouttery, hair hangers and choir singers build a spiritual microcosm together in which everything is connected. ‘Mystica’ is an exploration of the lost, mystical undercurrent in the here and now. Not an escape route, but a powerful visual performance in which being together is central. "The performance is unique because it is aesthetically engaging, musically strong and physically stunning." - Pzazz (Johan Thielemans) "We are welcomed into the circle and become part of what the performers experience. We see all the details: tense, trembling muscles, teary eyes and looks that betray concentration, pain and relief.” - E-tcetera (Daphne de Roo) "You see six bodies that do not so much tell or sing about mysticism, but above all embody mysticism [...] Mystica therefore also feels like a ritual that asks for connection in the most virtuoso, soft and soothing way possible. - Knack Focus (Els Van Steenberghe)