mill’s beauty reality salon

In theory, there is no difference between Michelangelo, Louise Bourgeois, Martha Graham and Simone de Beauvoir: they all start out from that empty moment, that blank canvas, and then decide when they will let the world in. The time Michelangelo spent staring at his block of marble before he carved the Pietà: that is noiseless time.

Nowadays, when art is systematically being associated with the realm of commodities, when the work of art needs to meet the demands of production and deliver results sellable on the market, with MILL’s Beauty Salon, we want to mark out the moment of noiseless time – when the realms of beauty and reality come together and feed the artistic process.

With MILL’s Reality Salon, we want to address the question of whether the era of BEAUTY is over and whether REALITY has now become the main topic of artistic interest. Is it the case that the true moment of exploration occurs when one word is mistaken for another? We wish that the artists of the salon, instead of going in one direction or another, remain open to the clash of these two notions – in its poetic and formal quest.

WHAT IS MILL’S BEAUTY REALITY SALON?

MILL’S BEAUTY REALITY SALON was born in 2020 out of the desire to continue the multidisciplinary artistic exploration that Needcompany began more than 30 years ago. We want to create a space in which to keep heritage on the move and open ourselves up for new encounters with artists of different generations, experiences and visions. As an funded independent theatre organisation in Flanders, we feel an urge to share resources in the current crisis, to create possibilities for those in need and to create awareness of the sensibility and precariousness of those who keep the arts alive.