Meg Stuart | Ricochet Days
7.Nov.26
Choreographer Meg Stuart and her company Damaged Goods inhabit S.M.A.K. for a residency from 21 September until 7 November 2026. Together with a diverse group of artists, filmmakers, choreographers and costume designers, Stuart cultivates a space for experimentation, gathering and reflection in close dialogue with the museum's infrastructure.
Over the course of seven weeks, Room 1 at S.M.A.K. will be transformed into a collective laboratory. By moving the studio into the public eye, Ricochet Days becomes a living, embodied archive, continually refracting and reactivating Meg Stuart’s ongoing choreographic research. Exhibition spaces open up to movement improvisation, while the museum archive turns into a film set where bodies are tended with the same care as artworks.
Cyclical movements form the starting point for the experiments: gestures of assembling and dismantling, rotation and torque, rebounding and return. Bodies and structures move within a shapeshifting environment. Research unfolds through hybrid practices, ongoing performances and open work sessions. With fictional twists, special effects, and sensorial trajectories, the artists alter the museum's choreography, subtly shifting how visitors navigate the building and relate to the artworks.
The residency’s energy ricochets beyond the institution: live video transmissions and workshops in the park blur the threshold between inside and outside. The museum's transport truck becomes a vehicle for impromptu performances across Ghent.
Ricochet Days is an invitation to witness these artistic processes as they evolve, to step beyond spectatorship, to watch, listen, linger, and converse – in short, to be in company with the artists.
Weekly programme
The residency follows a recurring weekly rhythm, balancing public moments with private working processes. On Wednesdays, the company ventures into the city with the S.M.A.K. truck. Thursdays are dedicated to workshops, and presentations by invited guest artists. Each week concludes with a public showing on Saturday, offering visitors a chance to discover the ongoing research.
Beyond these recurring moments, the creative process itself remains a continuous invitation to step in, through open work sessions, impromptu interventions, chance encounters and stray traces.
Find more information about the announced public events here:
About the artist
Meg Stuart (b. 1965, New Orleans, USA) is a choreographer, director and dancer who lives and works in Berlin and Brussels. Her work is driven by experimentation and artistic cross-pollination; it challenges the limits of the body and broadens our view of reality. With her company Damaged Goods, founded in 1994, she has created more than thirty productions, ranging from solos and duets to choreographies for multiple dancers, video works, site-specific projects and improvisation.
Participating artists: Raul Aranha, Belmon T. Bendjus, Emily da Silva, Sofie Durnez, Davis Freeman, María Ibarretxe, Márcio Kerber Canabarro, Vladimir Miller, Gašper Piano, Pierre Piton, Nico de Rooij, Isabela Rossi, Yorgos Sapountzis, Meg Stuart, Mieko Suzuki
With guest contributions by: Lázara Rosell Albear, Aline Belfort, Contagious (Andrea Neumann, Sabine Ercklentz, Mieko Suzuki), Lucile Desamory, Misha Downey, Philipp Gehmacher, Isabelle Pauwelyn, Peaches, Sina Seifee, Gosie Vervloessem
Artistic direction Meg Stuart
Co-curation Vladimir Miller
Artistic production Martin Sieweke
Technical coordinator Tom De Langhe
Sound technician Wout Clarysse
Production assistant caterina daniela mora jara
Costume assistant Abigail Miodownick
Documentation assistant Anna Šidáková, Heather Stewart
Produced by Damaged Goods and S.M.A.K.
With the support of Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission
