SOFACQ Gallery

Designer and director Niek Kortekaas (° 1958) finished his studies in drawing and painting, design and photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam.

Since 1985 he has worked continuously as a designer for theater and dance companies and as a production designer for various film projects. In addition, Kortekaas has also organized various exhibitions and is furthermore working as an illuminator and director.

 

He currently teaches scenography at POPOK (Postgraduate Performing Arts, Department of Theater Design), a postgraduate that was founded by Kortekaas together with Jan Verswyfeld and Jean Marie Feviez.

 

Niek Kortekaas received a Johnny Kraaikamp Musical Award for best creative performance, two Flemish Musicalawards for best direction and best creative performance for 'Pippi Longstocking the very strongest musical', The Charlotte Köhler prize for scenography, and the SABAM prize for applied arts and photography.

 

Because of the fascination for the crossover and interfaces between scenography and architecture, Niek Kortekaas is increasingly active in the field of exhibitions and museum installations.

 

In addition to his work as a scenographer, Kortekaas has developed into a versatile director. It was therefore only a logical step in his development that in recent years he has also directed in addition to his work as a designer, for theater, musical and opera.

Noteworthy were a number of large-scale location projects, including 'The Man in the Boat' in the former Cockerill-Yards shipyard in Hoboken near Antwerp or 'Ship of Troy' on the work island Neeltje Jans at the flood barrier of the Oosterschelde as part of the Zeeland Late Summer Festival.

 

He realized his first directorial work at the Noord Nederlands Toneel at the invitation of Pol de Hert, 'Explosion of a Memory', with text material by Heiner Müller, with composer Walter Hus and with actors such as Francois Beukelaers, Peter van Asbroeck Ellen ten Damme, Chiel van Berkel et al. Modified March 2012.