Die Walkure

“The associative richness of the leidmotives can, as it seems, receive a perfectly visual equivalent…”

André Hebbelinck – Knack Entire article (NL) press_1989_15 “…

The Theys brothers do not seem to lack creative ideas for transposing Wagner’s myth to our time by means of a modern medium…”

Gerard Lakke – MEDIAMATIC Entire article (NL) (EN)

press_1989_13 and press_1989_12 “… The result is much more interesting to look at than the usual dry television registrations of scenic performances. But the most important for the media art is that the tape frees the real creative potential of studio- and postproduction effects and techniques which too often are used as decorative elements to cheer up uninteresting images…”

Jeremy Welsh – ANDERE SINEMA Entire article (NL) “…

What is language? It is something to communicate with. But the meaning is constructed through conventions. This is what also happens with the music of Wagner. Melodies on themselves have no meaning, but through repetition, by using certain melodies in the same context, they receive a certain meaning. That meaning arises through convention, and is learned while watching the opera. We try to do the same with the image…”

Frank Theys in an interview with Konrad Maquestiau and Koen Van daele Entire article (NL) “

… Television in itself is nothing. It is a receptacle of possibilities…”

Koen Theys in an interview with Konrad Maquestiau and Koen Van daele Entire article (NL) “

… On television one can see opera’s, movies, art programs, … It’s a medium that absorbs all other media, that shows everything, but in itself it is nothing. Television is based on culture, but doesn’t participate on that culture…”

Frank and Koen Theys in an interview with Eric de Moffarts Entire article (FR) “

… In De Walkure, the Theys have employed video’s specific properties, fashioning a clever and audacious work that rings true.”

Steve Seid – PACIFIC FILMARCHIVE – Program Entire article (EN) “

…Their “Walkure” deserves to be seen, but it’s hard to say by whom. Wagnerians will fume (if they don’t shriek), and audiences who don’t know Wagner won’t begin to penetrate this curious, distorted, brilliant, ridicilous work.” Craig Seligman – SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Entire article (EN) “

… Purists will certainly howl, but those for whom Wagner’s operas are less than Holy Writ may be fascinated, as well as irked, by “The Valkyrie,” an unusual video treatment of the second opera of “The Ring of the Nibelungen.” …”

Joshua Kosman – SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Entire article (EN) “

… For the Theys brothers, the the subject itself of the opera of Wagner, which is the loss of the sacred, of the slow erosion of myths, concerns television very closely…”

Eric de Moffarts – LA LIBRE BELGIQUE Entire article (FR)

“… It’s a real festival of images: incrustations in the way of Jean-Christophe Averty, the regiment of Valkyries replaced by a flotilla of inflatable dolls, and nothing is left to the imaginary about the intimate anatomy of Siegmund…”

Fernand Leclercq – LE SOIR Entire article (FR) “

… In a personal style, the two young flemish artists were able to translate Wagner’s complex cosmology to our time, by use of the newest audiovisual technologies…”

Yolande Poulin – DEZE WEEK IN BRUSSEL Entire article (NL) “

… The more efficient use of the available machinery finally gives a substantial contribution to the production of a technically perfect and at the same time visually from itself generating videowork…”

Friedemann Malsch – KOLNISCHER KUNSTVEREIN