Choreographer Ugo Dehaes brought his continent-crossing solo show Simple Machines (kwaad bloed) to Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket this February as part of the Manipulate Festival 2024.
Combining the arts of the Table Magician and the Basement Inventor, Dehaes effortlessly charms the small audience he assembles about his large wooden tabletop. He has, it seems, taken to breeding robots in an attempt to revolutionise dance via automation. After all, it’s worked for Jeff Bezos.
“It’s a masterful presentation, with Dehaes exhibiting utter commitment to his bit.”
With the only light beaming from a canopy suspended above the table, Simple Machines is an intimate, exciting, but relaxed experience, beginning with one small cardboard box: a box that begins to move. From here matters consistently, but gently, as Ugo introduces his robots from embryo to fully autonomous, AI-powered ‘adults’.
It’s a masterful presentation, with Dehaes exhibiting utter commitment to his bit. If you ever need external help to persuade your kids that Santa is real, you could do worse than study this particular tour-de-force. The robots themselves are impressive, sometimes grotesque, and increasingly impressive. The show itself is full of delightful, disturbing surprises, and builds to a truly memorable finale.
The subtlety of Simple Machines lies in Dehaes’ refusal to make simple political points. The commentary on automation and the displacement of humanity is thoroughly implicit, without the least detour into polemic. The show is an invitation to engage, mentally and physically with technology. Robots prone to walking off the table must be babysat by the audience, whilst others can be taught dance routines by the manipulations of human hands.
All of which would be interesting, but at risk of being over-cerebral, but for Dehaes exceedingly good sense of humour. His slightly anarchic, very droll sensibilities are threaded through the hour. It makes Simple Machines a genuine satire, and not just a sophisticated set of observations. His entertaining of questions from children is charming, though care is needed not to invite so much chatter as to break the show’s momentum.
“Audacious, delightful and disarmingly subversive…”
The menagerie of other robots in cases set about the space conjures ghosts of gallery and zoo alike, a space into which the audience is tipped when the show is finished. It’s here that audiences across countries also connect, lessons learned at other shows in other places available at the push of the button. These can, in some cases be added to, should the ticket-buying public choose to do Ugo’s work for free.
The insights offered by Simple Machines are clear; the lessons you take away are up to you. Audacious, delightful and disarmingly subversive, do stop by the Simple Machines road show, should Ugo Dehaes erect his automated tent in your neighbourhood.
Simple Machines is produced by Ugo Dehaes
Show Details
Venue: Fruitmarket Gallery
Dates: 4 February 2024
Showtimes:
- 1:00pm & 3:00pm & 6:00pm
Age Recommendation: 8+
Running Time: 1 hour
Accessibility
- Wheelchair Accessible Venue
- Wheelchair Accessible Toilet
- Audio Enhancement System
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