In Memoriam Johan Leysen

In Memoriam Johan Leysen

29.04.23

A Two Dogs Company mourns the loss of Johan Leysen. We cherish the collaborations we were able to enjoy over a span of almost twenty years.

In 2005, Johan lent his voice as voice over to the installation BOX, with excerpts from Heiner Müller's Verkommenes / Medeamaterial / Ufer Landschaft mit Argonauten. He was "the messenger" in END (2008), a figure recounting the disasters that ravaged world while sitting in a glass cage crossing the stage again and again. In the installation HUMUNID (2010), a projection of Johan on a puppet recites a text based on Samuel Beckett's Lessness. In M, a reflection (2012), Johan, together with his holographic double, performed texts by Heiner Müller, a monologue for two about the complexity of violence and the inescapable twists of history.
Together with Jeroen Van Der Ven, Jan Steen, José Kuijpers and Marino Formenti, he starred in Conversations (at the end of the world) in 2017, a performance based on the work of Daniil Kharms, in which five characters are left to spend their last evening filling stories, poetry, music, and the search for insight.
And in 2020, ACT premiered, a monologue for Johan with parts from Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing, a dogged and beautiful search for an answer to the questions "Who am I?" and "What am I doing here?" Each time Johan engaged himself to the full one hundred percent, each time leading to in-depth processes and beautiful performances. We still had so many plans, so much work to do: to continue reading the new Dutch translations of Kafka, a monologue with the complete Texts for Nothing, a performance with texts by Robert Walser, … . 
With Johan we lose not only an important actor, but also a companion de route, a point of reference, a friend.