Even hushed Ivo Dimchev makes raging impression with "I-on" during opening night Springdance Festival

As a performer, Ivo Dimchev is so fast and ferocious in his shifts between blunt bravado, childish fun, erotic impertinence and cutting loneliness that as a spectator, you normally can't get between them. Once Dimchev has his audience in his clutches, they can only follow him in bewilderment. 

“I-on" is another seemingly loose collection of action. Everything takes place around a wooden plinth, on which the Austrian's artworks are Franz West appear only to disappear again just as quickly in Dimchev's stream of associations. His usual zap race between states of mind, treacherous types and seemingly idiotic actions is shown in "I-on" is counterbalanced by West's artworks. The absurdity of his handy sculptures, wondrous things without function, appeals to Dimchev's recurring commentary on the absurdity of art. The simplicity of West's small white forms also challenges Dimchev's wild outbursts as an entertainer.

The elusiveness on which Dimchev constantly speculates - of the artwork, of himself as a performer - turns into nothingness, like a hollow vessel behind many facades. It makes Dimchev vulnerable. At "I-on" does not simply surrender to the thrill of his madness. In Theatre Kikker, therefore, the audience enjoys it mostly in silence. A silence that in turn can be read as the silence of the museum, or the grave.

Wonderful are the moments when Dimchev lets the tension drain away so agonisingly and then with a single gesture - cheap, kitschy or scabrous - he turns nothing into something again. It is not cheery, but with a Tommy Cooper-like optimism, Ivo Dimchev knows how to turn sense into nonsense as easily as he can turn nothing into something. Phrased this way, it seems meagre, but it is phenomenal.

That Dimchev (Bulgaria, 1976) is not only a peerless performer, the author of an extreme repertoire of his own has been making it clear since Lili Handel (2005) and Some Faves (2009). The performances received international acclaim and earned Dimchev an audience of his own."I-on" is a more recent solo, which served as a prelude to the group work "X-on”, which was in Something Raw. ''I-on" can be seen only tonight at Springdance for now. The next performance is not scheduled again until January 2013, in Ghent.

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