For Jong Wilt#2014, Nikolas Lestaeghe spent the month of May as artist in residence at De Groenplaats, the production and creation space of arts centre De Werf.

He was given a month to work on his creation in complete freedom. The emphasis was on research and process, less on the product, the performance as such. At the end of the residency there was a showing where the work in progress was presented to an audience.

In GIROS 5, Nikolas wanted to arrive at a definition of humankind: to take stock of where we, as the species “human”, stand today. He wanted to use Jong Wilt as a workshop where he could quietly work on the images and installations needed to tell that story. For the GIROS 5 mission, Nikolas worked together with Nicolas Delalieux.

GIROS 5 is based on NASA’s ‘Voyager Golden Records’ project, in which NASA tried to give as accurate a description as possible of human beings to… extraterrestrials.

“Man has always had a quest to go faster, higher and further. This quest brought about the birth of space age. Before man could explore the stars, he needed a base to explore from. Today we can make a visit to a international launch and landing platform and be witness of the GIROS 5-mission.”

Credits

Concept: Nikolas Lestaeghe
Performers: Nikolas Lestaeghe, Nikolas Delalieux, Thijs Lambert
Technics: Frederik Aelterman