Serial Drummer Girls is a video project based on a live performance by 30 young female extras, including percussionists and singers.
You can watch the video by Koen Theys together with the performance by Danae Theodorou and the 'autoteatro' of Ant Hampton and Gerd-Jan Stam.
Video artist Koen Theys (BE) tries to interweave sound and image as naturally as possible. To achieve this, he works with ChampdAction, a production platform with years of experience in setting up multidisciplinary, experimental sound projects.
This work will become the final part of a video trilogy in which music forms the consistent thread. The first part, Death Fucking Metal, starts with rock and heavy metal music. In part II, My Dragon Brother, Chinese opera music is central, while the final part, Serial Drummer Girls, revolves around Western atonal, modern classical music.
Each of these different musical genres is placed in a setting that exposes internal conflicts, as well as the cultures to which they belong. All three genres share the fact that they have been superseded, are out of date. The musical forms still exist, but their originally relevant content and contexts have been lost. They have become empty shells – zombies – and it is for this reason that they can together be called the zombie trilogy.
Concept & direction: Koen Theys
Coproduction: ChampdAction
Artistic advice, music, audio: Serge Verstockt
Coaching percussion: Marcel Andriessen
Coaching singing: Rolande Van der Paal
Koen Theys has been an important figure for Belgian video art. The international success of his work as a student – his work was purchased by MOMA (NY) at the age of twenty – laid the foundation of the first department for video art at a Belgian academy (University College of Art and Design Sint-Lukas Brussels, 1985). In 1989, Theys set up the arts centre Argos together with his brother Frank Theys and a few friends. It became an international renowned place for video art and new media. In 2004, he set up the department for video art at the University College of Art and Design St-Lucas in Antwerp, where he remains a teacher unto this day. Although video and photography remain at the centre of his œuvre, Koen Theys can be considered as a typical post-medium artist – also making sculptures, installation and performance art.
