THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHORE

May 2022, De Ceuvel

After three weeks on the water, everything shifts
Arrival is a fragile thought
The idea of going somewhere linear, torwards goal
No horizon, time
Reach out, keep up
The tides
Me the water, you the wind
Pushing
Where?
What would it mean to listen?
Underwater
Constantly harm
A table, no seats
Everything surrounding us
Everyday default
Pleasurable existence
More is more, every day
Can we really stay
Like this? I wonder
One last slight movement before surrender.

Amsterdam in 2022, a city below sea level.
The city is made of polders, land extensions that rely on technology and infrastructure to keep the water from flooding the land. The city owes its stability to immense dams, and sea locks, that make barriers against the ocean. This urbanism is therefore in perpetual opposition and conflict with the water that is seen as a threat to the security of the land. Some sailors and boat builders see things differently, they adopt another attitude towards the water by living on boats: floating is finding a good balance in the relationship with the sea: you live with it instead of against it.
With this performance, we would like to raise awareness about the threatened sea biodiversity and sea level rise and encourage the audience to reconsider the space they live in, and see the water they are surrounded with with open eyes.

Because...
If the ocean dies we die with it.

With Sabrina Schlosser, Sigrun Gyda, Paola Ancona.

“In Surinam, I was working on a fishing boat and one day we caught a big hammerhead shark by accident with a net. For me, it was wonderful and exciting to see this huge animal from so close. An animal that usually scares humans was now vulnerable in front of us. We chopped off his head and cut the body in half, took the meat away, and then folded the spine until it broke. I could put my hand in its mouth and see all its teeth without it biting me. Then we threw every piece of the animal back into the ocean.
With this crew, we were taking 30 tons of fish per ride. The first two days I thought I will not eat fish ever again because we were baseballing with it. But then I started eating it because there was nothing else...”

“The Fibonacci spiral is a mathematic system defining life. You find it in everything, from your dna to the shape of tree branches..If you have seaweeds in the water, there is a lot of current, but the seaweed is al-ways fine. The moment where you step on it with your feet it crushes be- cause it is very weak. So how can it handle the strength of the water current without a problem? It is because the seaweed grows in this natural way that we call Fibonacci spiral and when the water goes through it, the body of the seaweed doesn’t impose much resistance, the water just slides on it.”

Extracts of sailors interview