Thomas Verstraeten

Thomas Verstraeten is a theatre-maker, actor and visual artist, who lives and works in Antwerp. Along with Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans and Marie Vinck, he is part of the FC Bergman theatre company, creating plays and operas that have won respect nationally and internationally. The floundering, ever-striving human being takes centre stage in FC Bergman’s work. The productions are characterized by large-scale montages of images and experiments with theatre in vast spaces, with groups of extras and integrated video. For the last 10 years, FC Bergman has been attached to Antwerp’s municipal theatre Toneelhuis.

Verstraeten also works independently of FC Bergman on an art practice that straddles performing arts and visual arts. In his visual practice, he spins narratives out of the movements of the city and its inhabitants, out of their visible and hidden stories and lives. In his videos, installations and often participatory performances, the ordinary is theatralized into the extraordinary. These projects have been presented in the urban public space and in cultural institutions.