EINDHOVEN.- From September 10th to 13th, the striking industrial architecture at Strijp-S will set the stage for flux-s, a new international arts festival which will present visual arts, performance art, new media, music, architecture, poetry and literature, interventions and experimental theatre. flux-s responds to and anticipates the future development of, and changes in, this terrain, thereby guiding its transformation into the new cultural heart – the creative city – of Eindhoven. Forty installations, performances, and concerts by internationally acclaimed artists will encourage the public to broaden its horizons and to experience Strijp-S in an intense and imaginative manner. The first edition of this (for the greater part free) four-day event, which includes many site-specific works, centres on the exploration and perception of the new spaces.

Strijp-S, an old industrial area in the centre of Eindhoven which was formerly known as Philips! "Forbidden City!, is undergoing far-reaching changes, and over the next few years will be transformed into the new cultural heart of Eindhoven. The vast, bare concrete floors of the monumental Hoge Rug building and Veemgebouw, together with the impressive street of pipelines, the Natlab and the wasteland between, will be the setting and stage for an international selection of artists and performers. Many of the works are being developed as site-specific: sculptures as architectural interventions inside and outside the striking buildings, visual-art installations spread over the immense floors, performance art that enters into an exciting relationship with the buildings, and surprising concerts and theatrical performances in extraordinary settings, with views over Strijp-S.

Program
With his parasitic apartment hanging from the long side of the Hoge Rug building, Frank Havermans will challenge the physical boundaries of contemporary architecture. In cooperation with MU and Woonbedrijf, artists Ernst van der Hoeven and Frank Bruggeman are realizing a true Dahlia Drive using more than 2,000 tubers and countless cable drums. The Canadian artist Michelle Teran, whose work The City is Creative is being developed in cooperation with BALTAN Laboratories, invites inhabitants of Eindhoven who have been located via YouTube and Google Earth, to reinterpret their videos in one of the industrial spaces at Strijp-S. Talented and renowned artists, among whom Katja Mater, Semâ Bekirovic, Allard van Hoorn, Erik Olofsen, Natasha Rosling, Heidi Linck and Femke Schaap, have been invited to create new, site-specific work in the immense indoor and outdoor spaces of this industrial heritage – by which entire floors are transformed into new landscapes that lead to surprising perceptions and immersive experiences of the existing space. Mike Rijnierse & Willem Marijs will make this happen in their very own way, with the help of lumodynamic effects.

Het Zuidelijk Toneel, in cooperation with Stichting Nieuwe Helden, will (re)erect Boom, the Tree under which the young man Ben will go in quest of the ultimate story, together with fellow townsmen and women. Literair Productiehuis Wintertuin has compiled a programme of combined performances of poetry, dance and music, with among others Lucky Fonz III, K. Michel, Willem Sjoerd van Vliet, F. Starik, Michiel Braam, Tsead Bruinja and Klaske Oenema. In cooperation with Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, flux-s will present the recently created, Brabant-based ensemble Lunapark, featuring, for example, the Dutch première of Men (a composition by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang) and the new revelation, Australian singer-songwriter Scott Matthew, who will perform with a five-man group. The Canadian Bell Orchestre, which consists of nine musicians including members of Arcade Fire, and the well-known baroque ensemble Lautten Compagney from Berlin will also perform in the exceptional, concrete-floor setting of the striking buildings – with views over Strijp-S.

In cooperation with the Van Abbemuseum, the Trisha Brown Dance Company will present the dance performance Floor of the Forest (1970) in a new stage setting, while in her Sloop van Gebouw SFF (Demolition of Building SFF), Lara Almarcegui documents the detailed step-by-step plan of action for the demise of one of the largest redundant Philips buildings at Strijp-S. Olivier Nijs is developing a new work for the 5MinutenMuseum, in which, adopting the role of a biologist, he examines a deserted factory building as if it were a threatened animal species. In cooperation with Axes/Jazzpower, the Rosa Ensemble will appear at flux-s in an intriguing acoustic performance with music, images, dance, and text collages in Hindi, Persian, English and Japanese. In The Good Life (a guided tour) by the Belgian artists Kathleen Vermeir & Ronny Heiremans, an estate agent sings the praises of an alluring lifestyle in a setting of empty museum galleries. In three works, Shaun Gladwell regains a grip on "the city!, while the duo Dagmar Keller/Martin Wittwer enter into the emptiness of the modern metropolis. During her performance, Stéphanie N!duhirahe will use every conceivable household object to make her way across deserted floors.