the better life by niko hafkenscheid © isabelle pauwelyn
Artists
NIKO HAFKENSCHEID
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Niko Hafkenscheid (1977) studied philosophy and worked as a book critic for the Belgian newspaper De Tijd and various art reviews. Currently he works as a musician, composer and musical dramaturg for film and performance art. He also makes own performances where music counts as a central performative element.
During his residency at workspacebrussels he will be working on 'The Better Life', a research project in the realm of performance art (supported by a research grant and trajectsubsidie from respectively the Vlaamse Gemeenschap and the Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie). For this research he works together with the lightartist Jan Maertens and the dramaturg Isabelle Pauwelyn.
Niko started as a singer and guitar player for the band aMute and toured with them as a support act for bands as A Silver Mount Zion, Shannon Wright and Do Make Say Think. They played at festivals as 'La route du Rock', 'Les nuits du Botanique' and '5 days off'.
In 2007 he started working with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods and made and performed the music of the piece 'Maybe Forever', a performance choreographed by Meg Stuart and Philipp Gehmacher. The piece toured over 4 years, was selected for Het Theaterfestival 2008 and won the price of the Jury at the BITEF International Theatre in Belgrade, a.o... A cd of the music was released by Damaged Goods. He also participated in an improvisation project with Meg Stuart, Hahn Rowe and Vania Rovisco for Istanbul 0090 in Garajistanbul.
Meanwhile he started making his own performance work, together with the Spanish performers Coral Ortega and Sara Sampelayo. 'My name is...' (2009) and 'In this case...rather not' (2011) were produced by de Beursschouwburg, k.c. Nona and DT Espacio Escénico Madrid and supported by de kunstenwerkplaats De Pianofabriek and projectsubsidies from de Vlaamse Gemeenschap and the Comunidad de Madrid.
In 2010 he started working with Kabinet K. and created the music for 'Unfold'. He is now making the music for their new piece 'I See You'. 'Unfold' was selected for the Theaterfestival 2010.
With the sound artist Cristophe Bailleau he released the c.d. 'Lights out in the ghosting hour' (2009) on the French label Optical Sound.
With the writer Saskia De Coster, the scenographer Kristof Timmerman and the actor Peter Gorissen he worked on EGG, an installation for public spaces produced by k.c. Nona (2011).
As a composer he worked for the French-German television channel ARTE and for various producion houses for documentary film. Films as 'Not Quite The Taliban (Fadi Hindash, 2009)' , 'Shadowwarriors' (Bart Vermeer, 2011), 'Simple Appareil' (Jean Christophe Cavallin, 2008) and 'The delicate Ransom' (Coral Ortega, 2010) were/are being shown on festivals worldwide.
Projects
07/04/2012 - 21/04/2012 / Rosas