Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

‘Mainstream’ is a sometimes hilarious, yet rather fatalistic tango by Swiss performance artists Alexandra Bachzetsis and Yan Duyvendak. The couple tries to analyse and reconstruct the typical idiosyncrasies of today’s mainstream cinema. The piece is almost like a kaleidoscope of melodramatic film excerpts and scenes taken from film noir classics, with references to ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and a host of other cinema icons.

Bachzetsis and Duyvendak suggest the story of an encounter between a man and a woman. They seduce each other, fall in love, decide to live together, but then split up. The idea is shaped into a plot that looks like it has been taken from a present-day movie, complete with all the clichés and beaten tracks you have come to expect.

For quite a while now, Bachzetsis has been exploring mainstream culture, from Hip Hop to contemporary fashion and stripteas. In ‘Musical’, performed in 2006 at Vooruit, she played with the codes of classic musicals, video clips and karaoke. Duyvendak’s work focuses on the world of TV and film: soundtracks, zap culture, the dynamics between the good guy and the bad guy… Together, they provide the ideal combination for this critical reflection on present-day storytelling.