BLOK-BLOC is a vibrant city festival organized by Laika in association with many other partners and staged in and around blocks of flats in Antwerp. This year for the first time three different neighbourhoods - the Left Bank, Kiel and Luchtbal – will be treated to ateliers, shows, open-air workshops and family days. Those living in these neighbourhoods - adults and children – are playing an important role, working alongside professional actors and directors.
BLOK-BLOC embraces the whole neighbourhood: a marquee on the square, a flat in a high-rise building, an underground garage, the local theatre, the meeting centre, a grassy expanse. We bring theatre, dance, music and great food and serve it up right in front of the spectators.
BLOK-BLOC was staged on the Left Bank in 2009, 2011 and 2013. The festival aims to encourage residents and other spectators to look at their neighbourhood in a different way.
A thread runs through the 2018 edition: CANTINA. In Belgium a ‘kantine’ is a sort of canteen where people congregate and talk fervently about their dreams and ideals. We have been working on this theme with adults from the three neighbourhoods since September 2017. Now we are making a show about it in which a number of local residents will also appear. CANTINA will then travel to Modena (Italy), Valletta (Malta), Alençon (France) and the Netherlands.
On the Left Bank pupils from the Lyceum Linkeroever are working with pupils from the Koninklijk Lyceum Antwerpen on Blue Monday, a production that deals with the same theme. At Luchtbal children from the Compagnie Airball theatre atelier and from the Sportomundo and De Optimist primary schools have been getting together every week to rehearse BEES. Both shows will be staged at BLOK-BLOC.