ABOUT THE PLATFORM
Behind the scenes image
Platform BARRY (est. 2015) is an organically evolving and safe environment, home to the long-term artistic research and personal work of actor and lecturer in higher art education Karel Tuytschaever. BARRY is based in Antwerp, Belgium, but travels across borders.
As a maker, Karel is mesmerized by physicality and embodiment in the arts. Physicality in terms of the relationship a person has with their own body. Embodiment; how one deploys their body as an artist to be part of, or arrive at, creating a work. By making, he asks questions about how we (can) look at bodies in our networked global visual culture full of body images.
Karel investigates through an embodied practice how physicality is connected to image-making. That is why the creations move between performance and visual art in, from a need to approach the human figure from a different perspective - a difference of acting in or about physicality. This field of work stimulates each other and constantly seeks new forms and relationships.
Across disciplines, the artworks are characterized by employing a durable rethinking of how the human body is engaged in the works. Karel explores intimacy as a practice of pursuing a more authentic and honest embodiment within the arts. Intimate connections don't come fast and in numbers. Therefore, his artistry is founded on a trust-building methodology of respectful and reciprocal encounters with his performers and collaborators.