Only the jester can express critical thoughts to the king without fear. OHNO COOPERATION (Maarten Seghers, Jan Lauwers and Elke Janssens) takes this privilege as a mission in its study of the place of art and the artist in society.

On the basis of his lifelong archives, Jan Lauwers is building a monumental installation in which he reinterprets past works and materials and confronts them with art history.

Statements as ‘an artist has to be nice, so you can understand’ and ‘if art is our lover, then who the f*** are you?’ are chanted all around, making the theatre hilarious, passionately and violently burst its seams.

Following the success of Isabella’s room (2004), which looked at Lauwers’ family history, he is now exploring the history of Hertmans’ family, somewhere between art and war, and in the midst of the Flemish struggle.

This bleak and glimmering allegory about love and death was the last play the legendary filmmaker John Cassavetes wrote before his death.

If art does not penetrate the observer’s memory it does not exist.

Whereas nature aspires to chaos, art was invented to find a certain balance in that chaos. Art, after war ...

By tradition,  Needlapb  offers an insight into future Needcompany projects. In order to shed some light on ...

An apartment at the end of a street by the sea. With a seaview, despite the covered windows. They ...

Jan Lauwers starts out from the performers’ family trees and is writing a new story based on their various nationalities, cultures and languages.

The party for the memory of a party.

If art does not penetrate the observer’s memory it does not exist.

Not a reconstruction, not nostalgia, but a work that always seeks out new problems.

And what's the use to me of a firm hand, what use is the amazing power that's mine, if I can't have the sun set in the east, if I can't reduce the sum of suffering and make an end of death?

The questions Jan Lauwers asks in the play go to the heart of twenty-first century politics. In a globalised world, the things that once held a society together – tradition, religion, ethnicity, nationality and so on – have lost their self-evident binding force.

The art of entertainment  is a black, almost cynical comedy about a famous actor, who decides to bring ...

The art of entertainment  is a black comedy about a famous actor, who decides to bring his life ...

If art does not penetrate the observer’s memory it does not exist.

If art does not penetrate the observer’s memory it does not exist.

Three Stories on Human Nature.

Art is actually all about man and human nature and all good art is a self-portrait of the observer.

C-Song Variations  tells several stories about people and fate. The link between all these ‘sea songs’ is the ...

In the museum installations (deconstructions) there are performances lasting a whole day, and the observer decides for himself how long he wants to watch a particular action.

If art does not penetrate the observer’s memory it does not exist.

On the day he has chosen he puts on his best suit and by way of farewell goes to his favourite restaurant, ‘The Lobster Shop’, to eat just one more lobster with armorican sauce.

Farewell to Warhol The last performance of Images of Affection was in Rakvere on 16 June ...

Laugh and be gentle to the unknown.

Jan Lauwers has been working on the C-Songs since 2001. He wrote and directed a short film without words ...

No Comment focuses on the fate of four women who look back at lives marked by radical ...

Jan Lauwers’ art work has an independent existence, but receives support from Needcompany whenever his visual and theatrical worlds ...

“You have the ability to turn this paradise into a living hell.” In this reversal from paradise to hell, the story develops into a modern-day fable in which man becomes the sum of his secrets, his past and his moral choices.

Jan Lauwers’ art SUMMER EXHIBITION - GRIMBERGEN 2002 ...

“Love it and trust it and leave. ” ( Don DeLillo ) Images of Affection is a play ...

When grandpa shouted, ‘Centina, it’s six o’clock, grandma not only knew what time it was, but also that she ...

When Prospero throws out his books at the end of The Tempest, he says, ‘Despite all the wisdom and ...

At William Forsythe's request, Lauwers took up the challenge of creating a piece in which the two companies confronted ...

The weight of this sad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. ...

Morning Song is the second of the two-part stage production No beauty for me there, where human life is ...