The Wolf & The Winter

January 2001 The Wolf & The Winter, De Melkfabriek, ’s-Hertogenbosch.

In medieval Northern Europe January and February were savage months for those outside the sanctums of the cities. Food became scarce in the freezing birth of a new year. The wolves left the forests prowling and scavenging the villages. They became fiercer and bolder. The winter months became known as the Season of the Wolf.
Last year in ‘s-Hertogenbosch I tasted true winter, not the Nordic mountain bite or the English constant drizzle of rain, but the bleak ice wind and prime chill of an older Europe. This worked strongly on my imagination, breeding seeds of focus. When Anet van de Elzen asked me to select the theme and artists for the next performance festival, the idea had already secretly grown. Part of its nature was contrast, an opposite stance to the technical and the theatrical; the direct and simple being given dominance over operatic effect and cinematic distance.

An attempt to draw out the complexities of poetry and action, of thought and feeling through the volume and silence of presence. I have selected a group of performance artist that already mirror this in their work. They have been given the scent of our meeting together, and are turning their attention away from the forests towards you. Curator Wolf & The Winter 2001: Brian Catling, Oxford 2000.

Under the Arches

February 2002 National Review of Live Art, Glasgow.

invitation for the wolves to make new work in Glasgow. Nigel Slight as guest wolf, bringing a wilder, older and more unpredictable feral presence inside the pack. This year the venue for the event is set in the looming caverns of the atmospheric Arches, one of Glasgow's premier alternative cultural centres.

Die Wölfe

May 2002 at the Württemburgischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.


The week of performances started on Monday with the opening of Jessie Kleemann, Tuesday the 6 wolves performed individually, Wednesday as a pack, Thursday Guestwolf Kurt Johannessen did a solo performance and on Friday Anet van de Elzen closed the week with a solo performance. After this week of work Ralf Wendt became part of the pack. 

Photo’s: Allard Willemse
.

During my teaching job at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildende Künste Stuttgart I got the opportunity to organise and produce Die Wölfe, this performance event. Concept and realisation: Anet van de Elzen.

The Wolves in Greenland

2003, Katuaq Cultural Centre Nuuk and the area of Sissimiut.

Jessie Kleemann, our guest wolf, invited The Wolf in The Winter to come and perform in Greenland in 2003. Our first performances were in the Katuaq Cultural Centre in Nuuk and during the following week we performed in the more remote area of Sissimiut. It was an unforgettable experience and brought us wolves close together.

Wolf Pedlar


August 2003 Boulevard 's-Hertogenbosch.

Wolf in the Winter returns...both to ‘s-Hertogenbosch and to the idea of  the itinerant stalker. The lone creature slinking in to the activities at the centre of the city. But in this case not hidden while seeking its prey. Instead the wolves come in the disguise of natural outsiders: Tinkers, beggars, buskers, pedlars, thieves, vagabonds and travelling players. Outcast who during a festival are allowed a place at the edge.

The secret is, that it is not known whether they are giving or taking. So enigmatically visceral is their presence. Working the hot summer fringe 
of the Boulvards Festival, which is centred in the cathedral square. In this potent atmosphere of much older times. The ghost of Hieronymus can be felt at our sides, watching our miniature Mystery Plays. We work the rim of the event in shifts. Occupying the ground for a day each then sharing a half day and passing the pitch onto the next wolf. Thus offering a modest shape shifting presence of great uncertainly to the crowds who pass by. Who are confused, entertained, amused, shocked and bewildered by our pilgrimage of side-shows.

Imperceptible, the earth rings

August 2005 La Bisbal d'Empordà.

On the 26th of December 2004, a tsunami caused destruction of an apocalyptic scale along the coasts of Asia and Africa.

The earth begins to vibrate after a large quake and produces a sound, a sound so low that it is imperceptible. The entire surface of the earth oscillates between 20 and 30 centimetres and as a consequence causes the whole planet to ring like a bell.

We as humans don't notice this sound nor do we perceive that the earth is spinning slightly faster. Animals, however, notice the reverberation; dogs begin to bark, elephants and other wild animals flee from the area, escaping the destruction caused by the water.
In the December tsunami hardly any animals were killed, but more than 200.000 people lost their lives.

Lupus Hiberna

2006 South London Gallery.

Brian Catling, Denys Blacker, Aaron Williamson, Kirsten Norrie, Anet van den Elzen, Ralf Wendt. Gastwolven: Jessie Kleemann, (Groenland). Jason Lim, (Singapore), Pep Aymerich, (Es). 
and Myriam Laplante (It-Can).

Everyday incidents are transformed into meaningful actions by The Wolves, an international pack of artists working in performance and live art. The Wolves will perform with guests, individually and together, using improvisation and rehearsed events, at the South London Gallery and on the streets of Peckham and Camberwell for three days from 18 to 20 January 2006.

There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. On the streets of south London and from 7 to 9pm at the South London Gallery
The Wolf In The Winter is a group of solo performance artist who come together to form a pack at given venues.

They were foundered in s'Hertogenbosch ( the home town of Hieronymus Bosch) in the bleak winter of 2001 in a response to the growing technical language and process of performance. They cut back everything to a performer and a light, an arm full of props and a savage desire to create atmosphere and tension. They have made works and tours in Holland, Germany, Spain , Scotland and Greenland. Every time they perform they invite guest wolves to join the tribe and tilt the balance.

Lupus Hiberna - Souls each

LADA - London - Live Art Development Agency - Club Row, Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London, 20.00 to 22.00. 31 oktober 2008.

Lupus Hiberna, Souls Each. On Hallowe'en, The Wolf in the Winter international artist's collective will assemble in London's East End to give a rare performance evening in the atmospheric Galleries of Club Row. 
By tradition, All Hallow's Eve - derived from the Gaelic Samhain - marks the year's mortal boundary when the membrane between the living and the otherworld is at its thinnest and may be dissolved. The harvest ended and the animal slaughter begun, it is the evening when souls are temporarily released from purgatory and a place for the dead is set at the feast. 
After dusk, to mark this start of the natural year's dark half, each wolf will slink off from the pack, one by one, to greet the dim flame of a new winter. There, isolated and bedazzled they throw grim semaphores back at the dead, their lupine souls each guiding the revisiting contagion to walk on the earth again.

To Be Present - Live - No Tech

 24 - 26 September 2010 Scavenger (solo-works), To The Bone (pack-work). WG terrein Amsterdam.

7, 8 October 2011

ERUPTIO 9! -  Mendicant, Sfantu Gheoghe, Transilvania.

A new meeting with works of three of us wolves and a guestwolf!
Brian Catling, Aaron Williamson, Anet van de Elzen, guestwolf Sinéad O'Donnell, Working in Sfantu George and in the Carpates, on location.

13 - 14 September 2013

Blind leading the blind Modern Art Oxford.

Wolf In The Winter will stagger and fall, arise and move across the lower middle of England under the banner and the blessing of THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND .
The image taken from Bruegel's gem-like painting of pathetic pilgrimage. The tour will settle in three contrasting sites. The locked cultural interior of Modern Art Oxford. The haunting ageless stillness of Dorchester Abbey and the gritty dignity of post industrial Birmingham in the new vibrance of the Fierce Festival.

First of three events where Wolf in the Winter will perform, from Oxford via Dorchester to Birmingham. 
In MAO the first night we perform solo's, second night there'll be a groupwork to be seen.


Blind leading the blind

29 September 2013 Dorchester Abbey. From noon to dusk we’re performing in the church.

Blind leading the blind

3 - 4 October 2013 Fierce Festival Birmingham - two different venues.
3 October at Fierce Festival Birmingham at Edible Eastside - group performance.
4 October at Fierce Festival Birmingham at AE HARRIS a former steel forging factory, solo performances from the wolves.