Out of the Blue

Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere, two young creators of documentary theatre, have already earned acclaim on major European stages. Exclusively focused on environmental themes, their work is characterized by long and meticulous preparation. Rooted in extensive artistic, scientific, and journalistic research, the process begins with conversations with experts in the field and people who have found themselves in the midst of the action, culminating into documentary performances that address universally important themes. This year, the Sirenos Festival will present two performances from their environmental trilogy.

 

Out of the Blue is the third part of the trilogy, focusing on the deep sea.

 

We often hear saying, “We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean.” when discussing the deep sea. Scientists point out that only 10 percent of the ocean floor has been mapped and explored, highlighting just how little we know about it.

After their acclaimed performances Mining Stories and Pleasant Island, Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere present the final part of their trilogy on mining. This time, they focus on a completely new industry: deep sea mining. With resources on land becoming increasingly scarce and overexploited, mining companies are turning towards the ocean. In the spring of 2021, three ships gather on a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean. One of them belongs to the Belgian dredging company Deme-GSR. Four kilometres below the sea surface, their mining robot is scraping the seabed in search of metals. On another ship, an international team of marine biologists and geologists keep a close watch on the operation. A third ship completes the fleet: aboard the infamous Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace activists protest against this new industry, potentially bringing new ecological catastrophes.

From their small apartment in Brussels, Silke and Hannes connect with the three ships via satellite. Each of the ships represents one pillar of the public debate: industry, science, and activism. Through a series of interviews and conversations, an intimate portrait of this new industry emerges. The piece attempts to capture a potentially pivotal moment in the history of the earth. How much deeper can mining companies dig, and what are we as humankind actually digging towards? What are the challenges and risks? What opportunities potentially lie ahead?

 

Artists about the performance

 

Mining is indeed not an obvious subject for theatre. It is perhaps a bit more obvious in the visual arts because you work with raw materials more concretely. But everything that surrounds us is raw material that comes from somewhere, and it is interesting to find out how it ends up here.

 

It was a very challenging project that ultimately is also about us, Hannes and Silke. We try to make our interpretations and feelings tangible. The title Out of the Blue refers to the resources that could be extracted from the blue ocean right now. But “Blue” also refers to a feeling that came over us during the making. We know that the world is not doing so well. We are overwhelmed by bad news. Deep-sea mining is yet another way to further exploit the world and at the same time is presented as a way to get “out of the blue”.

 

The deep sea belongs to us all: it is humankind’s common heritage that makes us think about the world and the future. Do we still want this form of exploitation or not? What do scientists think today, themselves confronted with a thousand new questions with every new discovery? Do we still listen to scientific facts? Companies use scientific facts to their advantage. Greenpeace uses their facts to do storytelling. Scientists help to make visible something that could also have remained hidden. Is it sometimes better not to know something?

 

 

Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere

Silke Huysmans (Brazil, 1989) studied drama at KASK School of Arts in Ghent and Hannes Dereere (Belgium, 1990) theatre science at Ghent University. With their work, the two Brussels-based artists investigate the use of journalistic and documentary elements within theatre. At the heart of their artistic practice is extensive field research. From 2016 to 2022, they worked on long-term research on mining, which resulted in a trilogy.

 

The first part, Mining Stories, premiered in the Beursschouwburg in Brussels (2016). For this performance, Silke & Hannes returned to the place where Silke grew up in Brazil. In 2015, a dam burst flooded this place with toxic mining waste, causing one of the biggest ecological mining disasters in recent history. Mining Stories was selected for Het TheaterFestival 2017 (Belgium) and received the main prize at the Zürcher Theaterspektakel 2018 (Switzerland).

 

In 2019, the second part, Pleasant Island, premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. In this performance, the island state Nauru holds up a mirror to the world. Nauru is often seen as a parable for our current world. The island was severely impacted by the effects of colonization, capitalism, forced migration and ecological distress, the consequences of which still linger today.

 

Out of the Blue concludes the trilogy. The piece premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2022.

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Coproduction:  Bunker (Ljubljana), De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam), Noorderzon – Festival of Performing Arts and Society (Groningen), Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Beursschouwburgm Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Festival d’Automne à Paris (Paris)

Residencies: Kunstenwerkplaats, Pilar, Bara142 (Toestand), De Grote Post, 30CC, GC De Markten & GC Felix Sohie 

Special thanks to John Childs, Henko De Stigter, Patricia Esquete, Iason-Zois Gazis, Jolien Goossens, Matthias Haeckel, An Lambrechts, Ted Nordhaus, Maureen Penjueli, Surabhi Ranganathan, Duygu Sevilgen, Joey Tau, Saskia Van Aalst, Kris Van Nijen, Vincent Van Quickenborne & Annemiek Vink 

Thanks to all conversation partners & the people who helped with the transcriptions