Blindman & Blindman Junior (4x4) . Anouk De Clercq / Kris Verdonck

20 x 20, or a whirlwind birthday celebration. In 2008, Blindman is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with all twenty musicians from the collective: the Blindman saxophone quartet and the four young quartets [4x4]. In 1988, the Blindmen were playing in factories and museums. Since then, with their golden tooters they have claimed their own rightful place in the performing arts and in a way that for chamber music is often iconoclastic. In the three places where the ensemble is in residence - Kaaitheater/Brussels, Concertgebouw/Bruges and deSingel/Antwerp - they are collaborating with three plastic artists who are also in residence there - Kris Verdonck, Anouk De Clercq and Jan Fabre respectively. The project will be more of a happening than a concert, a metaphor for Marcel Duchamps' blind guide who shows the spectators round, the Dadaist image from which the ensemble takes its name. Blindman attempt to develop concepts which show new insights and neutralise prejudices in contemporary as well as older music. This celebration takes place more than ever in the light of this quest.