BERLIN theatre company
Bart Baele and Yves Degryse founded BERLIN theatre company in 2003 together with Caroline Rochlitz. Bart Baele graduated in 2000 at the Theatre School Amsterdam. He worked as a stage and video designer for several companies. Yves Degryse graduated in 2000 at the actor studio Dora van der Groen in Antwerp. He founded the collective SKaGeN and worked as an actor for Comp. Marius.
BERLIN [B, Antwerp] started in 2003 the series “Holocene” [the Holocene is the current geological era]. The starting point of each project in “Holocene” is always located in a city or a region somewhere on the planet.
Berlin does a profound research and then selects a medium or a combination of media on the basis of that study.
Berlin works with many others in both artistic and academic domains, resulting in a series of intriguing city portraits. Berlin likes to perform its productions in different circuits: theatres, exhibition spaces, festivals, special locations.
“Jerusalem” [holocene 1 – 2004/2013] is a captivating performance on multiple screens about one of the most complex cities in the world. 10 years after recording for the first performance about Jerusalem, BERLIN revisits the holy city. Former interviewees are contacted, images are put together, a discussion is done over.
For “Iqaluit” [holocene 2 – 2005/2009], Berlin spent 1,5 month in the Arctic Circle. In 1999 Canada ceded a territory to the Inuit. No more than 25.000 people live there. The Inuit chose their capital: Iqaluit. A city that wants to be bigger than it actually is. Only accessible by plane. 6.000 residents, 2.500 cars. Barely 25km of roads. BERLIN built a metal framework in the shape of an igloo. Inside are seven screens showing seven different scenes of exactly the same length. Each screen depicts an aspect of Iqaluit.
“Bonanza” [holocene 3 - 2006] is a unique cinematic portrait of a desolate mining town. Once there were 6000 inhabitants now there are only 7 permanent residents, immersed in their own spirituality, living on a hotbed of accusations, gossip, murder and fear. Bonanza is a microcosm of the world, the residents claim. Berlin portrays this world-in-miniature on a scale model of the town and five film screens.
“Moscow” [holocene 4 - 2009] is a portrait for 6 moving screens, a string quartet and a pianist in a tent especially designed for “Moscow”. Berlin spoke to several prominent Muscovites and recorded what they had to say in a disconcerting film document.
The number of projects is not defined but the Holocene cycle will end in Berlin for the creation of a fiction–docu project with different inhabitants of the former cities of the cycle.
“Tagfish” [horror vacui 1 - 2010] is the first episode of the new cycle Horror Vacui [the fear of emptiness], a series of portraits at the table, composed encounters. “Tagfish” tells the story of an area, called Zollverein, abandoned by industry, which is looking to put its wasteland and empty industrial heritage to new uses. Seven chairs with vertically placed flat screens on a long table on stage, having a conversation that never did take place in real life.
“Land’s End” [horror vacui 2 - 2011] tells the story of a murder case where all parties involved, find themselves reunited years later. The audience penetrates both the crime scene and the interview room at a location yet to be announced.
“PERHAPS ALL THE DRAGONS” - Horror Vacui [#3] - 2014 […in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage]
One round table with thirty seated screens at one side of the table
and thirty audience seats at the other side.
Thirty one-on-one narratives.
The spectator can choose five he would like to see.
