Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere Pleasant Island

Hidden in the Pacific Ocean lies the small island of Nauru, once called Pleasant Island by European explorers. Its history appears to be a metaphor of our current day and age, in which colonization, capitalism, migration and ecology are on a collision course. After the exhaustive exploitation of the island’s vast underground phosphate deposits, both under British-Australian rule and afther its independence in 1968, the island was left in economic and ecologic ruins. Today Nauru is hosting dead-end refugee camps in return for a large amount of Australian money. Meanwhile, the island risks to be swallowed by the ocean as a result of the rising sea level. It is in this post-apocalyptic setting that documentary theatremakers Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere encounter the limitations of a world that is intent on endless growth. Drawing on interviews and conversations with residents and refugees on the island, they search for new perspectives. What future is there in a place that has been exhausted in ecological, economic and humanitarian terms? And how do we deal with the gloomy predictions that appear to await all of us?

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By: Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere
Sound mixing: Lieven Dousselaere
Thanks to: all conversation partners in Nauru
Presentation: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Beursschouwburg
Production: kunstencentrum CAMPO
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Spring Festival Utrecht, Beursschouwburg,
Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Veem House For Performance, Theaterfestival SPIELART
München & De Brakke Grond
Residencies: Beursschouwburg, De Grote Post, KAAP, Kunstencentrum Buda,
Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, STUK, De Brakke Grond, LOD & Veem House for
Performance

Picture © Vlad Sokhin