CHACHA, aka charles krutzen
(Feb. 28th 1960, Heerlen, the Netherlands): artist.
(chacha is a combination of "charles" and the French word for "cat", "chat".
so it has to be pronounced in French. Thanks to Georgine Robin-Sikkel.)

Started around 1980 as a normal poet (before that time he was a painter for a few years),
in 1993 he began to experiment with language, voice (as a sound instrument),
declamation, sound and composition. The way in which he combines
instrumental sound with spoken word is striking: all mentioned elements
are equally important, so that more than once it seems that the lyrics
are rather sung than spoken. Added to that drama elements.
And so, in 1994 he created the word "PerpHoetry" out of "poetry" and
"performance". His studio he called: "the Laboratory of PerpHoetry".

On stage one can see a performance that finds its origins in pop music.
Sometimes totally "unplugged". But live always: VERY energetic! Or as
a Belgian journalist put it once: "it sounds roughly like Leonard Cohen in hell."?

Besides, he has done some acting: early 1999 he played the part of
Herod in a stage performance of Oscar Wilde's SALOME.

In 2002 he started his "Memorandum 500" sound 'n' video project.
Experimenting with the sounds and looks of Fiat 500s, breaking new
ground for himself: video. The sum of a lot of things he's done and
most of it is still doing: graphics, painting, performance, sounds.

In August 2003 he finished and shown for the first time to an audience
his second film The Face and after that his third video film "MOK" (mug),
totally different products than "Memorandum 500" .

Another video is called "Bengal Light", in which his brown
tabby spotted Bengal Cat Tricksy (officially called Star Dance) plays
the role of a fireworks...


What's more?

What you can hear when he is on stage
All sorts of sounds: it may be classical, it may be poppy, it may be
"musique concrète"-ish, noisy, electronically, it may be industrially, it
may be voices you'll hear, played on tape or CD or a computer. Every
sound composition he puts together at home. Sometimes he uses
instruments on stage: keyboards, a computer, instruments made by
himself, an effect processor played like a musical instrument and even
a theremin.

What's most important is what he does with his voice in combination with
the sounds on a PC, tape or CD etc. He always uses an effect
processor to process his voice as part of the overall compositions and
sound. So the voice effects are never on their own; they are very
carefully chosen. If composed freely, he improvises with his voice and
lyrics.


HOWEVER, there's another side of him that is totally different:
his non-amplified side. Even without a microphone. He acts, talks, murmers,
mumbles, shouts, yells, whispers, sometimes without saying anything,
"selling" words to the audience it seems to understand but it doesn't...
his DaDa acting side.
He even once (accidentally) had a conversation with a dog, in front of
an audience.


What you can see

Chacha is a very energetic and activ person on stage: a
combination of an actor, a spoken word pop singer, a mime artist and a
performing poet. So the vision element is equally important as the sound
and acting element. Sometimes stormy and hectic, sometimes intensely
quiet.


Where did he perform

Various places and times in Heerlen and Maastricht (e.g. with Up There,
with Berend Willem Hietbrink and the PolyPoetry Festival 2001), Zaal
100 (together with Alan Laurillard and solo) and Entrepot Dok (also with
Alan Laurillard) Amsterdam, Sju-huis (again with Alan Laurillard) and
several times Theater Kikker Utrecht, Perron 55 Venlo, Hotel De Plasmolen
(near Nijmegen), Groningen, Sittard, Geleen. All in The Netherlands.

Chez Lulu in Liège (with Alan Laurillard and solo), Genk, Tongeren,
Zuutendaal. And: twice the Machomet-sound-festival (Intro Maastricht) in
's-Gravenvoeren, appearing both nights with Scot Jenerik from San
Francisco and with Sonic Boom from England. All in Belgium.

Several times in Aachen and once in Mainz, Germany.

He had been invited to do some performances in England in June 2001
during a literary festival (as the only not-Brit !), but they had been
cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth disease.

In August 2004 he did performances during the Limburg Festival in
Roermond (NL) in front of the cathedral. Very funny and for most people
in the audience very shocking and not-done: the catholic centre
of Limburg in combination with the heretical Krutzen.
Almost like a priest of a heathen culture.
For some info and photos, see the Limburg Festival web pages.

Since the end of 2004 he's done quite a few performances of Kurt
Schwitter's URSONATE (1932), a 20 pages long syllable and sound poem.
The first performances took place in Theatre Lexor, Heerlen on
Not only does he recite that "text" in his own very different
way, but he also adds some theremin playing and a video on the
background curtains or wall and on his body.

AND chacha has translated the German sounds of the Ursonate into the
sounds of his own dialect. The Ursonate is then called Umsonate.
Besides Schwitters' Ursonate he also acts/recites Raoul Hausmann's
Plakatgedichte and his own DaDa sort of poems.

Come to Schwitters, who used to be a dada-ist in the 1910s and early
20s, Charles has also connections with dada-istic 391 in the USA.



His first official book/video/sound on cd-rom has been released on June 29th, 2006: a very special cd-rom containing poems, video and sounds, titled "51", released by
Uitgeverij Lemmens.
At first only in Dutch, but probably it will also be translated into English.
The official presentation of the cd-rom took place in Café Pelt, Heerlen
the same day.

He is also working on very noizy electronic music CDs.


Some more dates:

In October 2005 chacha performed at the Wave 101 in Shin Urayasu (near Tokyo) in Japan.
Thanks to Jesse Glass.
The show has been recorded on two video tapes.

September 8, 2006: he performed Kurt Schwitters "An Anna Blume" and Jan Hanlo's
"Oote oote boe" during Het Parcours, Maastricht.

March 13, 2007, Comedy Café, Amsterdam: a.o.: "An Anna Blume" and a
combination of "FMSBW" (Raoul Hausmann), "Ursonate"/"Umsonate",
"Oote" (Hanlo); "Bits and Scratches" together with his best friend Jean Hendriks on
drums; and a show in which he did his normal performance work, like "SHE"
and "Blitzkrieg".

+March 2008, he did a 2 night's dada performance project, called
"Cabaret Voltaire in Lexor", for Bernardinus College (a secondary school) in Heerlen,

Took part in (H)EAR XL, EXHIBITION ABOUT SOUND AND VIDEO ART, with the
video/sound composition "TURN ME ON" (see the "sound" and "video" page),
at the KUS Gallery, Heerlen (NL), from April 17th tot May 24th 2009.

On May 23, 2009 he did a noize concert during the Kunsttour event, in
Landbouwbelang Maastricht (NL).

On August 15, 2009 he did an uptempo noize concert at the "Booch? open air Festival"
Heerlen (NL).

From September 5th till October 4th, 2009, he participated in an exhibition at
Hedah, Centrum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (Centre for contemporary art)
in Maastricht, with a painting he made in 1979.

October 24, 2009: performance in the Recital Hall at Anglia Ruskin University,
Cambridge (UK).

December 11, 2009: recited "Bedreigde Stad" and "Rouwstad" from Paul van Ostaijen's
dada-istic poem "Bezette Stad" (1921) at Schunck, Heerlen (NL), during
a 2 days' event about Van Ostaijen's Berlin period.
For a sound recording of it, go to the "performance" page.

December 13 - January 17 (2010): chacha's video "turn me on" took part in an exhibition
called "Salon Parkstad", at Schunck, Heerlen (NL).

On January 28 chacha performed Kurt Schwitters'
"Niesgedicht" (1946), in a programme called "Lid.Madame, gives birth to Lid.Mad 1",
café Madame Van Dam, Heerlen (NL).
Probably the very first time EVER this poem has been performed, including the letter (partly
in Danish) that goes with that poem !!!

Participation in an exhibition called "Horror Vacui" about "pocket parks".
Chacha showed some designs (scale-models) he has made for pocket parks.
The exhibition started on February 21 and ended on March 25, 2010, at the KuS Gallery,
Willemstraat 91a, Heerlen.
For pictures of the models (maquettes), visit this page.

Wednesday March 24, 20.30 h.: Theater Lexor, Willemstraat 40-42,
Heerlen (NL). An evening about his work and life, because of his 50th birthday.
Before chacha did his performance, Hennie Jetzes and Lexor owner Lex Nelissen spoke a
few words to the audience and after that chacha was interviewed on stage by Ine Sijben.
He himself did a performance combined with a lot of (his own) video.
Originally organized by Paul van der Velden, but due to his illness it had to be reorganized.
You can find and download the poster on the "archive" page of this site

But... there is more !

In November 2006 he has started making assemblages.
And in the meantime he has begun experimenting with photography.


For reviews of some of his work, like two CDs and poems by Jesse Glass
he performed on CD, please visit Sonoloco's site in Sweden.

You can download an info file here (most of it is in Dutch). PDF, 42.6 mb.

For more information AND reactions, please contact:

c h a c h a [at] c h a c h a r t [dot] n l