KABOOM – The Art of Destruction

When is it O.K. to destroy something? How do you do it best, and why may it even be necessary? Can there be anything new without destroying something old first?

Let’s go, we drown plaster busts, paint on old master’s paintings, throw philosophers into the meat grinder and stuff them into sausage skins. We gnaw on hard candy, smash guitars, and climb through canvasses. In our brand new piece KABOOM, we revive 18 famous destruction actions from art history in a 45 minute tour de force for the whole family.

Malle from Vestskolen Kulturcrew said after the show: “All the other theaters just talk and talk. With you stuff actually happens.” KABOOM is the successor to our price winning piece “50 dangerous things” and part two of our trilogy of interactive performance lectures.

KABOOM was performed in English at Spill Festival 2023. Press clipping. At Hangö Festival it was performed in Swedish. Press clipping. Send a mail to henrik(@)liveart.dk to get video links.

KABOOM can play in most locations.
Duration: 45 minutes.
For audiences 6 years and up.
With two of the following performers: Henrik Vestergaard, Katrine Leth Nielsen, Tobias Shaw, Daniel Norback
Director: Henrik Vestergaard
Dramaturg: Ellen Friis
Costume: Maria Ipsen
Producer: Lars Vind-Andersen
Set design: David Sebastian Lopez Restrepo & Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen.

KABOOM: The Art of Destruction was inspired by the workshop “Kaputt!” by Sibylle Peters, FUNDUS THEATER/Forschungstheater. Our version of Kaputt was held in Copenhagen Contemporary in October 2020. Kaboom was selected as a showcase performance at CPH STAGE 2022. In February 2023 a German version of KABOOM was presented at Imaginale festival in Mannheim/Germany as part of a new edition of our destruction workshop “Kaputt“.

For inspiration for this show, we thanks Felix Gonzales-Torres, Anonyme Kunstnere, Kate McIntosh, Gustav Metzger, Jan Erikson, Rachael Clerke, Banksy, Asger Jorn, Lucio Fontana, Sabura Murakami, Pete Townsend, Mathias Kristersson, MF Doom, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Jørgen Nash, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Blixa Bargeld, Diether Roth, Niki de Saint Phalle and many other artists.