Acting to Dancing

Belgian Art Performance artist Beatrice Didier was in Bangladesh to give a talk about working together with other solo performance artists at Dhaka Art Centre at the invitation of  Waiklur Rahman. She was in Contemporary Theatre in 2005. Her performance is a form of visual art, which cannot be reproduced and cannot be sold. She presents pictures of life with her body. "I use my body and objects to create what I want to," says Beatrice, who creates this performance with a relation to her personal life.
She tries to be connected with the present situations around her. It can be related to some architecture or story of space, she says. Her performance is not narrative but abstract. Sometimes she handles kinetic art, which deals with energy. "It is something like jamming in jazz music. We decide together about where to perform and the duration of the performance. Each performer brings her own material and aesthetic energy. The performers improvise to get a unified picture," she says.
In Rangoon, Beatrice met Wakilur Rahman, and he suggested that she should come to Dhaka too. She had seen some of the photos of Wakil's work and the performance artists there.
Staying at Wakil's place, she had the time only to visit the Drik Gallery. Her audience from the day before overwhelmed her. The artists were all interested in art performance and the turnout was much better than expected. They were enthusiastic and had a lot of questions. However most of the viewers were visual artists.
The idea of working together without a plan from beforehand and with only the idea of coexistence is not easy, but it is great. It is a way of working together, with no pre-plans or agreements. Each one does his bit and takes the cue then and there, she says.
Commenting on the two opposition parties in Bangladesh, she says that they may not agree about some issues, but they can join hands for the good of the masses. People can work together even when their views differ, she says.
In Rangoon she was in a festival organised by IACO that arranged some art performances and exhibitions. The participants came from Vienam, Myanmar (Burma) and this fantasia lasted for four days. Each artist presented him/herself and the ideas. Painting, video and performance were all included in the extravagance, says the dancer.
Beatrice says that she can perform in a gallery or in a museum, but most of the time she performs in public space, so that one gets another kind of relationship with the audience.
What brought her into performance art? Beatrice says that when she was in the theatre, she realised that she wanted to create, as she did not went to remain just an actress. Since she is not a painter or sculptor, she can work with her body, as she did in contemporary theatre. She says that she feels free and content with her kind of creation.