“After the Midst” is a multi-layered visual and textual interpretation of HOOGTIJ/laagtij, Gouvernement’s performance-festival on rituals of celebration. Authors Jelle Martens and Raimundas Malašauskas started from the idea of “simultaneity” to observe, registrate & fictionalise all possible events that happened during those 10 days in july 2017 .

‘After the midst’ is anything but a factual report of an arts festival. Martens and and Malašauskas created their own stories, in which they allowed small details, fleeting moments and interactions with people, objects and performances. All possible ingredients were treated as of equal value.

Just as the festival gradually transformed into a Gesamtkunstwerk of blending festive evidence, so the publication unbinds itself from disciplinary or chronological boundaries. Layer after layer, it seeks new interpretations, new possibilities, new connections.

HOOGTIJ/laagtij Participating Artists:

Joris Van de Moortel, Rutger De Vries, Charlotte Adigéry, Nicole Twister, Bert Jacobs, Micha Volders, Jaak DeDigitale, Pieter Ampe, Sibran Sampers, Nienke Baeckelandt, Boris Van den Eynden, Borokov Borokov, De Zwarte Zuster Fanfare, Gamelan Voices, Matthieu Ha, van Twolips, Sachli Gholamalizad, Sebastiaan Van den Branden, Lotte Vanhamel, Kim Snauwaert, Anyuta Wiazemsky