Eric West, MC Wisecrack, Henri van Zanten (director), Chuka, Le Lot

A nice reminder of how wild life can be…& free in true action

Related posts:

1. Wordtotem=Taaltotem – Concept for Dordtselaan Rotterdam – 2006
2. Depression Promotion Centre 2: FAQ & Facts
3. What can life be but improvised?

? Is it true that the Depression Promotion Centre 2 wants me to be depressed or even more depressed than i already am?
Not at all. Feel free to enjoy the Depression Promotion Center, but in case you are really suffering from depressions, you are welcome to join the club. Like Stigmadome for example.

? Can i become a member of the Depression Promotion Centre 2?
Unfortunately the Depression Promotion Centre is not an organisation or society or club.

? Does the Depression Promotion Centre 2 have a management team or general staff?
No, it is organised by autonomously acting hosts: Harmen Verbrugge for the art exhibition, Henri van Zanten for the live performances and musical activities, Curator X for the overall ideology, O.W. for interviews.

? Who designed the flyer?
Henri van Zanten in collaboration with Herman Keetbaas of
De Boog Printers
Rotterdam
Tel. +31 – (0)10 – 4661454

? Will the catering in fact only consist of water and bread during the openings?
Yes, you are supposed to attend the exhibition for the sake of art and artists.

? Is our society really victim to all those apocalyptic questions put in the flyer?
Who knows.

? Why is the Depression Promotion Centre 2 hosted on www.henrivanzanten.com?
Because Curator X is too shy to have his own siteblog.

Any question? The please leave a comment and I will answer you ASAP.

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1. Heart Attack Caused by Dutch Political Climate?
2. Depression Promotion Centre 2 closed spectacularly
3. Collaborations can be a laboratory without enemies

We are the source of the flow we follow. That is the essence of improvisation. Breathing in the ever unknown present (yes, a present!), unprepared in that sense, if we are excited and curious. It is the first and last chance to fathom the depth of the present’s towering challenge (Yes, it’s like poetry). Challenge of unforeseen clairvoyance. That’s what Zen also is about. Not the chains and handcuffs of control freakiness produced by fear.

Breathing out our presence and presentation …

It is the challenge to give every second, every breath, every heartbeat, every action, thought, situation and emotion the freedom of it’s uniqueness and generosity.

One grows with the flow, you know. Grows wings too! For the imagination and the joy of being on this planet. Often in spite of a lot of nasty, ugly, stupid, evil shit happening around us and to us. The art of improvisation is dealing unprepared with the unforeseen. That’s contained in the etymology of the word itself. Unforeseen, but always unprepared, because seen it is no longer as it was foreseen.

By the way, if you think about it, your conception was an improvisation too, even if you were planned.

Having gained this freedom of flow and improvisation, reality starts improvising too, because it does no longer have to resist the interpretation forced upon her.

For example this landing dodo, being the result of a bottle of sour milk I knocked over by accident, while I was laying in utter despair and depression on my coach, suicidal even in my disbelief in any meaning in life, my life etc. Totally unable to be creative. And see what happened.

Improvisation is the natural ability to be part of the unknown, to be amazed, to accept that questions aren’t always necessary, that interpretations can be destructive, that being itself is enough to give the mystery a reason to shine…

Enough for now. We don’t possess our life, we should be possessed by life. And death is our bodyguard anyway. We share the convergence of matter, emptiness and a stuttering second we call eternity. We don’t need future to be complete. No past to make pain last. The present we do need, to become our presence in such a way that it’s a present to pass on….and I pass on my presence as Omniartist, with improvised and improvisational interpretations of theater, music, writing, visual arts, video, television, graphic design, journal, webactivities and yet unknown expressions. Here you are!

Related posts:

1. Valuable Links to Projects & Collaborators
2. Making art with reality – I call it: Suerealism
3. Music Will Save The World

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1. Henri van Zanten playing with appearances
2. Tymen Visser animated by Henri van Zanten
3. Yokocola upgrades psychedelic noisepop symphonic as seen by www.010foto.nl

I staged it 13 x since 1981. Doing it in Jena was a special experience. There was still the smell of Stasi and distrust. When i started working with my group, they were shy, but after 3 weeks stressdesigning we ended up as a wild bunch together.

Well see for yourself!

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Initially I looked for Tymen Visser at the gallery Dek22, but he wasn’t there. By coincidence we met in the supermarket. He kidnapped me and brought me to the Rotterdam<Art>Shield headquarters. I had no reason to complain as I am the Devil’s father of the R<A>S. From the open window, the many schoolgirls, which were passing by from or to various learning institutes in the neighborhood got judged and estimated by the other R<A>S-members Jacquelino Teixeira and Jasper, with rigorous scrutiny. And some secret mutiny of scrotum’s and bubbles in testicles. All of a sudden the meat inspection ended . The windows had been closed. A security woman had entered our company and we started a discussion – the man~woman~thing!

Probably in an attempt to escape this unpleasant situation, I looked out of the window and among the school girls I saw an elegant man with – what I thought was – a lute in a case on his back. I opened the window in a hurry and asked him: “Lute? Dowland.” – “No, an ud.” the then still for me nameless Mehmet Polat said. The ancient Middle Eastern string instrument oud is called “the king of instruments” In Arabia, often considered as the predecessor of the Western lute. Mehmet himself is studying North Indian classical music as well as I did. From 1985 to 1990 I had been a student of the famous classical Indian singer Ustad Mohammed Sayeed Khan. So I asked Mehmet if he had time to come in. “Yes, only short, otherwise my girlfriend will kill me.”

The impro that followed you can see and hear for yourself. It was like kite-surfing on a tricky wind. I think we felt no longer as strangers: We passed from Turkish music to flamenco to gypsy to Japanese, to us.

Related posts:

1. Music Will Save The World
2. Jan (Willem) Bijl draagt man van de straat voor
3. 3 eternalfernalmusica

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1. Impro on Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ by Pretty Evil ends in total loss…
2. Valuable Links to Projects & Collaborators
3. The exciting lives of an Omniartist

Pretty Evil Autobahn

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1. One take perfection: is enjoying what is lacking…!
2. Bambi’s evil spirit bent on revenge!
3. Music Will Save The World

First Aid

In case you can’t handle it

• stressdesigner
• dipity

Music

Improvisations and compositions of my bands

• mcwisecrack on soundclick with all his bands
  
• mcwisecrack in soundcloud with fulllength presence
• mcwisecrack on his first myspace
  
• mcwisecrack on youtube
• yokocola on reverbnation
• myspace/godknowstheabsence
• myspace.com/frauduleus
• myspace/prettyevil
• myspace/handsomeofabitch
• myspace/theblackoutsyndromeclub
• myspace/popupshits

Video

Cinematic improvisations between fiction and facts

• youtube/henrivanzanten
• youtube/mcwisecrack
• youtube/stigmadome
• youtube/zegmaarOW
• youtube/ICCComedians
• flickr/photos/henrivz

About Improvisation

Read more about the art of improvisation.

• wikipedia about improvisation
• wikipedia about musical improvisation
• wikipedia about improv theatre
• definition of improvisations according to the merriam-webster online dictionary
• theatre on a shoestring – improvisation games and tutorials

Collaborators

Artistic interactions with colleagues

• fuckthewriter
• myspace/fuckthewriter
• tjalling visser
• wim van egmond
• wink van kempen
• ferri ronteltap
• ziegenmalte
• inherited delusions
• boszoomsolutions
• humango
• ka yee li

Worldwidewebspidery presence

Interests & Info

• anarchism

Related posts:

1. Music Will Save The World
2. Impro on Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ by Pretty Evil ends in total loss…
3. What can life be but improvised?

Henri van Zanten takes your privacy seriously. This privacy policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it.

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Contact Information

Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to info@henrivanzanten.com for further clarification.

Related posts:

1. It’s long ago i was here…
2. Henri van Zanten playing with appearances
3. An Improv on Improvisation, No Escape

Related posts:

1. An Improv on Improvisation, No Escape
2. Alberta & Alberto are introduced
3. Alberta & Alberto are introduced

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1. de klassieke leader van De Gasten Komen
2. Cut the Crap – A Random Road Movie (TENT, Rotterdam)
3. Valuable Links to Projects & Collaborators

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1. PRCcondensed1
2. Hard on love – an epic epileptic song by Fuck the Writer & MC Wisecrack
3. Valuable Links to Projects & Collaborators

Pages

• About you & me
• The Baudelaire of Rotterdam: Henry van Zanten's Art of Scandal
• Curriculum Vitae - Henri Carel van Zanten
• HvZ: Untitled program - show reels of real shows (1992-2002)
• An Improv on Improvisation, No Escape
• One take perfection: is enjoying what is lacking...!
• How the web can become an unexpected selfencounter
• Suerealism & surrealism: the difference
• Van Zanten voor beginners - CV in Nederlands
• Valuable Links to Projects & Collaborators

Posts

• Category: Impro TV and Movies
  • The End of Brian O'Brian - Western movie short May 8th, 2008
  • Improv: Revenge on Noisy Snobs - A Social Experiment February 22nd, 2008
  • Cactoanalysis - Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (3): Schizophrenic? February 14th, 2008
  • Cactoanalysis - Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (2): Open Character February 3rd, 2008

Related posts:

1. The End of Brian O’Brian – Western movie short
2. Cactoanalysis – Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (1): Introduction
3. Cactoanalysis – Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (2): Open Character

Also check God Knows the Absence on mySpace!

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1. Improvisation on December 2nd 2007
2. It’s long ago i was here…
3. Impro on Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ by Pretty Evil ends in total loss…

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1. MC Wisecrack’s “Stand still and look” upgraded by Yokocola
2. An Improv on Improvisation, No Escape
3. Photography is most existential improvisation

Cactoanalysis is not just a fata morgana or an empty well in the desert of psychological stigmatization, pharmaceutical junkyfication and the religion of psychoanalytical diagnosis. Cactoanalysis stands for juicy growth of insight and enjoyment in touchy matters of the human mind and brain. We are not a mental illness! Let’s meet another cactus…

Related posts:

1. Cactoanalysis – Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (1): Introduction
2. Cactoanalysis – Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (2): Open Character
3. Alberta & Alberto are introduced

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2. Architects scraping skies…..bombers!
3. Wordtotem=Taaltotem – Concept for Dordtselaan Rotterdam – 2006

As omniartist I do many things at the same time. In that way I can keep my creativity on a high energy and concentration level – like a permanent orgasm. And of course, having a skull filled with fireworks, every ‘explosion’ (spark of the big bang) is a message looking for it’s medium. So no time for a dull moment! Life is to be discovered, dis-covered, otherwise it will be suffocated and then suffocate.

It is in fact a happy story, because it never ends. This part we – the spirits we are – choose to be in a body on the earth.

Tabula Rasa Perpertuum Mobile …. Status Quo Vadis?….Utopia Fata Morgana Deja Vu …don’t call in the desert it’ll make you thirsty …. There is no centre that’s the point…/>

Blank or blank again without end / were do we go with what stays the same / utopia a fata morgana which is a deja vu / …………………………/ ……………….

Now the first line just came up and then the quotes came together into this quatraine. Like the 4 winds. West ahead of sundown/East into the sunset/South sunbathing and famine/North snow and white seals… And then the line in the centre!?

My Webmeister Helmuth Ziegenmalte started complaining that I neglected my website.The last page was my first journal entry, ‘god knows how long ago already’. It is true, I confess. But, yes BUT …take a look at http::/www.youtube.com/henrivanzanten and you will see for yourself what I have been doing with what i have been doing…

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1. Suerealism & surrealism: the difference
2. Depression Promotion Centre 2 closed spectacularly
3. Cactoanalysis – Interview with Cactoanalist Otto Wensinck (3): Schizophrenic?

It was edited by Ferri Ronteltap for the occasion of the art exhibition “Oh No Not Again!” which HvZ organized in Tent/CBK Rotterdam in the 2002. It was a selfportrait in the context of collaborations. More than 50 artists participated.

HvZ:Untitled Program #1 (S)

HvZ:Untitled Program #2 (M)

HvZ:Untitled Program #3 (L)

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1. Cut the Crap – A Random Road Movie (TENT, Rotterdam)
2. Collaborations can be a laboratory without enemies
3. The Voices of baby Lon – refreshing Revelation 17-18

Today i will start my journal at last. Have been too busy up to now. That’s what i said to myself all the time. But time is our own decision. A decision to make an incision in oblivion.

Last friday i gave a concert for the first time since 20 years with my band God Knows the Absence. It was in the Arminus Church in Rotterdam, as part of a revival party of the antiscene in the 80’s, also in Rotterdam. A book of photo’s of that period by Carla van Marel was presented. It was not back to the past or the future. It was back to the present. A Merlin-machine action.

Check God Knows The Absence – I Could Give. This was our final song of the concert.

I’ll keep in touch with more bedtime stories.H.

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It was the the photographer Wink van Kempen – who gave me good advice and support at the beginning of my career and made brilliant photo’s for my catalogue Theatrical Research since 1984 and for many other occasions – who proposed to create a new artform: phototheatre! His motivation was simple: as theatre is only in the moment and evaporates in time and photography on the other hand freezes sublime moments into timeless scenes, why not use the latter to create a kind of stopmotion interpretation of drama.

The first story we chose to use for this purpose was that of Bluebeard. After some research it became clear that historically speaking there was very little to hold onto. So i started off writing my own interpretation in a series of poems in prose. In itself a kind of stopmotion. There was no real plot. There were scenes, suggestions of drama, flashes of metaphysics and pure poetry. The title i gave to it was Bluebeard paints his beard.

Then we started making the photo’s (slides). The first presentation was a tape-slide production we produced commissioned by RoTheater in Rotterdam. After one show – only for the group – it wasn’t shown again. The form was too revolutionary for normal people working in normal theatre. They were shocked and thought it an unforgivable sign of vanity that I had acted Bluebeard myself. How pathetic. However we weren’t allowed to take the tape and slides. RoTheater had paid for it, so it was their property, although they didn’t like it (i.e. grasp it). However years later we wanted to show it in a retrospective. We informed, but it had been thrown away when they moved into their own theatre. Unbelievable disrespect and stupidity. I only tell this anecdote as counterpoint to the silent immortal beauty of photography. Of course we had kept the originals.

In 2002 only the slides were shown in random order, projected on the name Bluebeard in Gothic letters. No text. That was in the Oh no not again exhibition.

But apart from the theatrical presentation, the photographic interpretation of Bluebeard and the poems in prose have inspired me to work on a graphic symbiosis together Willem Westerik. Here are the first pages of this work in progress.

Related posts:

1. No life without theatre, no theatre without life!
2. Crazy Nietzsche appears in Night of the churches
3. Presenting my Webmeister Helmuth Ziegenmalte

View original concept in Dutch as PDF

The matrix should be read vertical. Here follows the free translation : horizontal.

THE ONE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER

OTHERWISE THE OTHER  WOULD BE THE ONE

BUT ONE AND ZERO IS ALREADY MORE

THEREFORE  BETWEEN NOTHING AND EVERYTHING A LOT

WHY SHOULD WE  NOT SEE THAT THEN

COMPARE THE DIFFERENCE  AND ENJOY THE LOT

LOSE COUNT AND ENJOY THE SHARING

Related posts:

1. Wordtotem=Taaltotem – Concept for Dordtselaan Rotterdam – 2006
2. Making art with reality – I call it: Suerealism
3. Poohologics finally takes over everyday life

It was the result of a commission by Stichting De Vrije Parel (Free Pearl Foundation) and the SKOR (Stichting Kunst Openbare Ruimte = Foundation for Art in Public Space)

It was rejected as being too monumental. Then van Zanten and Micke came up with the Wordrattle=Taalratel. Indeed a more transparant and fitting sculpture. See also Wordrattle=Taalratel.

Related posts:

1. Wordrattle=Taalratel – interactive sculpture for Dordtselaan – 2006
2. Cut the Crap – A Random Road Movie (TENT, Rotterdam)
3. The Voices of baby Lon – refreshing Revelation 17-18