Buy Ticket
De IJzerstaven
11 March : 17:00 - 21:00
12 March : 16:00 - 21:00
13 March : 15:00 - 20:00
De IJzerstaven
4 March : 17:00 - 21:00
5 March : 16:00 - 21:00
6 March : 15:00 - 20:00

Electric Circus

The Netherlands

Electric Circus is a collaboration between Fred Abels and Mirjam Langemeijer.

Fred Abels (1961) is an artist and inventor, specialized in kinetic art. Fred’s history is like a journey trough different disciplines. His kinetic art has been exposed in galleries and exhibitions. His music generating machines were used at dance parties. His art and inventions where shown in several theater shows. Eventual Fred continues his journey where most artists start: as a street performer.

Mirjam Langemeijer (1976) is a puppeteer and creator of visual theater. She has produced a number of performances, along
with her twin sister, under the name ‘Compagnie de Draak’. Mirjam has extensive experimented with the art of puppetry,
especially in street theater performances.

Like Fred acquired her skills mainly on an autodidact way. Since 2004, they explore new approaches to puppetry and are pioneering in the field of street- and puppet-theater. With a combination of analog electronics, animatronics and self-designed software, they bring their special creatures to life. They have traveled the world with a lifelike robot ‘Dirk the homeless robot’ and a robot circus-monkey that is indistinguishable from real. In recent years Electric Circus has focused on automatic miniature performances. NO screens or projections are used, everything is live and tangible, all sounds are also acoustically generated on the spot (by machines). Electric Circus uses the term NON-VIRTUAL-REALITY for this. Rolf Meestersstrengthened the team for this work, especially in software design.

They have been invited all over the world with their unusual mechanical creatures.
Performance piece: Exhibition & Headspace – Electric Circus

Electric Circus exhibits in the spacious steel workshop De IJzerstaven in Amsterdam.

Electric Circus transforms this workshop with lifelike animatronics, strange machines and experiments with illusionism.

The second weekend (11, 12, 13 March) you can also see ‘Headspace’, ‘an installation consisting of miniature performances, performed by robotised puppets and programmed machines’.

Headspace is a automated miniature theater for one spectator at the time, an installation with robotic actors and programmed mechanics.

The concept is to provide a quiet little space for the public. For two minutes the spectator puts on a new giant head, it slides gently over their old head and it shuts them off from the outside world. In dim light and silence a fully automatic spectacle takes place with live animatronics. There are no screens used nor any recorded sounds, all sounds are acoustic and generated at the very moment.
It’s Non-Virtual-Reality!

Headspace is a reaction on the extensive amount of screen-time in daily live and the artificial experiences taking place online and in social media. Inside headspace it is physically impossible to use a phone or a camera, the audience can look with their own eyes only.