Karel Tuytschaever (BE, °1985) graduates in 2007 from the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in the Drama, an acting education led by Dora van der Groen. To date, Karel works as a freelance performer for theatre, film and television series. You can also hear him in voice work for TV and radio.
Since 2008, he is a lecturer at the Bachelor programs in Drama and in Contemporary Dance at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp / AP University College and is a member of the dance training mentor team. He is regularly solicited as a coach and hosts workshops and masterclasses organized by theatre studio Nest, OPENDOEK, University of Antwerp, deDansPunt, Let's Go Urban Academy, scenography education KASKA, Zuidpool, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, The Amsterdam School of the Arts & Fontys School of the Arts.
In 2015 BARRY is founded on the need to create an environment where Karel’s personal hybrid own work can be developed, be made and be distributed. He is rethinking the way of using film, live performance and installation to move towards a more personal, intimate and honest embodiment within the arts. Since 2019, BARRY (BE) has a long-term collaboration together with DansBrabant (NL).
In 2020, he starts as a researcher in the arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, with the support of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. His project The transparent body (2020 - 2022) is a practice-based search for genuine embodiment in current 2D and 3D portrait arts. How is a visual artist actually looking at the human figure? It is a tipping point in which he grafts his vision of what sincere embodiment within performative art is, and can be, on to the visual arts.
Thereafter, Karel starts his doctoral research in the arts; Als de kunstenaar zijn beeld inslikt (When the artist swallows his image) (2022-2026) is an in-depth trajectory which digs into the seldom explored domain of embodied knowledge within the relationship between the maker and their image of somebody. He explores the role that the maker's unique physicality plays in depicting someone else. Throughout this journey, he looks at ways to arrive at more reciprocal and sustainable relationships between different artistic disciplines, finds new inter-medial forms, further develops his inclusive vision and explores its scope.
Of great importance to him is the cross-pollination interaction between his performing, his lecturing, and his research and work as a maker. His fascination for embodiment and physicality within the arts plays a key role in this triangle.
(photo © Joery Erna)