Moddertong is narrative theater in Flemish, interspersed with a few other languages. The performance evokes the everyday life of a community in the near future. Under the sun, animals, plants, people and man-made things enter into all kinds of bonds with each other.

Sébastien Hendrickx has been working on this performance for several years under the title Moddertong, which relates to the concepts of ‘mother’, ‘language’ and ‘earth’. Under the influence of continuous research and constantly changing circumstances, the work will continue to take on different forms. Moddertong will therefore not have a ‘premiere’ and then go on a ‘tour’; every new performance moment is a full-fledged performance.

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Moddertong

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“He twists his ton­gue insi­de-out in the vain hope of learning to speak like a coun­sel­lor. ​‘Is the­re real­ly nothing abo­ve the law?’ Is this the way, in this ske­wed pala­ce, by the­se hid­den stair­ca­ses, thanks to the­se dozing bai­liffs, on the­se worn car­pets, in the­se piles of paper and bound volu­mes, through the­se end­less dis­cus­si­ons, the­se can­did con­fes­si­ons of pre­ju­di­ce and igno­ran­ce, and this archaic com­pi­la­ti­on for­med by cut­ting and pas­ting obscu­re texts, that the reign of the law is esta­blis­hed?” (Bruno Latour, 2007)

In Palace of Justice, jud­ges, lawy­ers, defen­dants, ushers, clerks and cle­a­ning staff pass by, inter­pre­ted by two ima­gi­na­ti­ve actors. The the­a­tre per­for­man­ce del­ves into the ambigui­ties of juri­di­cal sys­tem. The judi­ci­a­ry is cri­ti­ci­zed for its cum­ber­so­me and unjust charac­ter; at the same time it needs to be defen­ded, sin­ce as a demo­cra­tic pil­lar it is under incre­a­sing pres­su­re today. The per­for­man­ce draws inspi­ra­ti­on from the Brussels Palace of Justice, one of the most impor­tant and bizar­re pie­ces of archi­tec­tu­ral heri­ta­ge in Belgium. Both a pala­ce and a ruin, end­les­sly under reno­va­ti­on, it is the per­fect allego­ry of the judi­ci­a­ry today.

Based on clo­se obser­va­ti­ons of the buil­ding and its day-to-day ope­ra­ti­ons, Sébastien Hendrickx makes an ima­gi­na­ti­ve trans­la­ti­on to the black box of a the­a­ter. Palace of Justice is an intri­ca­te com­po­si­ti­on of move­ment, text, light and sound.

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