-aan ons geliefde publiek.

-dit is een aankondiging van de republiek in de balie

–op maandag 7 november 2022.

-komt het zien. zien en horen!

-de voorstelling gaat door in de salon.

–aanvang: 20 uur 30 in de avond.

–ook als je later bent kunt je binnenkomen!

-het nieuwe repertoire bestaat uit voorgenomen reprises en creaties. vlak voordat we beginnen, ter plekke, wordt op genoemde datum de nieuwe speellijst gemaakt.

in de vorige aflevering van 3 oktober werd het vogende gelezen:

— gabriel kousbroek — eigen korte verhaal

— jan joris lamers — interview met harari 

— wim van der grijn — fragment van nescio over maandag 03 oktober & korte verhaal zenuwachtig van robert walser

— erasmus mackenna — brief aan vader van maarten biesheuvel & gedicht black-berry picking van seamus heaney

— annette kouwenhoven — dagboek fragmenten van roger martin du gard

— jaïr stranders — essay over dagboeken van cornelis verhoeven

— marit hooijschuur — fragment uit honger van knut hamsun

— bert wagenaar van kreveld — fragment uit het begin van alles van david graeber & david wengrow

— maureen teeuwen — artikel nrc zondag 02 oktober is de kastanje wel genoeg bezongen? van marjoleine de vos

— florian diepenbrock — fragment uit de draaischijf van tom lanoye

— matthias de koning — gedicht de tien geboden voor het gebruik van het uniforme vuilnisemmer van c. buddingh

-we verwachten zoals altijd plotseling nieuwe bijdrages, discussies en reacties.

‘de republiek'(open kunstenaarscollectief sinds 1992)

ichthyologie

er is in zee een coelacant gevonden,
de missing link tussen twee vissen in.
de vinder weende van verwondering.
onder zijn ogen lag voor ’t eerst verbonden

de eeuwen onderbroken schakeling.
en allen die om deze vis heenstonden
voelden zich op dat ogenblik verslonden
door de miljoenen jaren achter hen.

rangorde tussen mens en hagedis
en van de hagedis diep in de stof,
verder dan onze instrumenten reiken.

bij dit besef mogen wij doen alsof
de reeks naar boven toe hetzelfde is
en kunnen zo bij god op tafel kijken.

gerrit achterberg

uit: cenotaaf (1953)

Over De Republiek

Al 30 jaar een artistieke vrijstaat voor de korte termijn.

De Republiek is een maandelijkse bijeenkomst waar in beginsel iedere artistieke professional met een zinvol voorstel terecht kan. Een collectief onderhouden binnenplaats waar de voorwaarden bepaald worden door het werk in plaats van andersom (of, verwarrender, ergens daar tussenin).

De Republiek komt voort uit Maatschappij Discordia, dat in 1992/1993 een samenwerking opzette met de toenmalige instituten Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Nieuw West en Felix Meritis. Met restgeld van deze gesubsidieerde partijen werd een plek gecreëerd waar ook ongesubsidieerde podiumkunstenaars hun ideeën op toneel konden brengen. 

Een lange, rijke en bewogen geschiedenis van De Republiek heeft geleid tot een vaste eerste maandag van de maand in De Balie; met in ieder geval een opening van Lamers en De Koning.

In deze serie selecteren De Groene Amsterdammer en Uitgeverij Athenaeum denkers uit de vorige eeuw waar we nu op moeten teruggrijpen en geven toonaangevende boeken van hen opnieuw uit. De thema’s die deze schrijvers belichten zijn actueler dan ooit, maar de boeken zijn veelal vergeten of onverkrijgbaar. In De Balie bespreken we Massa en Macht, het excentrieke meesterwerk van de Duitstalige schrijver en Nobelprijswinnaar Elias Canetti.

Nu mensen steeds vaker toevlucht zoeken in een collectieve identiteit en fascisme de politieke arena is binnengedrongen, is Massa en Macht opnieuw relevant. Kan Canetti ons helpen de destructieve impulsen van de hedendaagse massa te bedwingen?

Wat zijn de drijfveren van de massa? Wat is de spanning tussen de massa en het individu? En wat is de verhouding tussen de massa en de paranoïde alleenheerser (lees: dictator)?

Via politiek, sociologie, chemie, psychologie en zoölogie gaf Canetti gestalte aan de massa. Het is een onverzadigbaar organisme dat individuen verorbert en kracht geeft, en zelfs een hang naar destructie toont: ‘Het liefst vernielt de massa huizen en voorwerpen. Het zijn de krachtige levenskreten van een nieuw schepsel, een jong geborene.’

Op zondagmiddag 27 november organiseert Theatergroep De Kale een leesvoorstelling van het toneelstuk Don Quichot op de bruiloft van Kamacho van Pieter Langendijk. Met o. a. Marieke de Kruijf, Sjoera Retèl, Celia van den Boogert, Victor van Swaay, Vastert van Aardenne en Jeremy Baker.

Met een inleiding van Jeroen Jansen, docent Historische Nederlandse letterkunde
aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Langendijk (1683-1756) schreef dit ‘blijspel’ in 1711. Het is gebaseerd op een kort fragment uit de bekende roman van Cervantes. De zwervende ridder Don Quichot komt op de bruiloft van de rijke boer Kamacho terecht. Als blijkt dat de liefde van de bruid niet op de bruidegom maar op de herder Bazilius is gericht, kiest Don Quichot de kant van het verliefde stel.

Langendijk heeft dit eenvoudige gegeven uitgewerkt tot een heerlijk stuk vol verrassende verwikkelingen, waarin de bekende figuren Don Quichot en Sancho Panza natuurlijk een groot aandeel hebben.

Theatergroep de Kale

Theatergroep De Kale verdiept zich al jaren in de toneelteksten uit de 17de eeuw. Deze tekst van Langendijk is in feite dus een uitstapje naar de 18^de eeuw. Het lezen en bestuderen van bekende of onbekende toneelteksten doet De Kale graag samen met het publiek tijdens zogenaamde leesvoorstellingen. De tekst wordt toegelicht en de acteurs van De Kale lezen fragmenten van de tekst, waardoor een goed beeld ontstaat van de kwaliteiten en de speelbaarheid van het stuk.

During the Cold War it seemed as if there was no other choice than taking the side of the capitalist West or the Soviet bloc. Yet Yugoslav President Tito sought allies in non-Western countries for an alternative political vision. In 1961, during a founding conference in Belgrade which gathered leaders of 25 countries and 17 liberation movements, the Non-Aligned Movement was officially created. Marking the era in raising its voice for decolonization, disarmament and opposition to racism, this movement is notably absent from Western history books.

Yugoslav-born documentary maker Mila Turajlić uncovered footage of this movement that was collecting dust in a vault in Belgrade. These images were digitized for Turajlić’s new documentary diptych “Scenes from the Labudović Reels” (screening at IDFA) which pieces together the story of their creation and role in the creation of the vision of a Third World project.

In De Balie, Turajlić brings this history to life together with a group of Dutch people with roots in various non-aligned countries. During this one-off performance they spontaneously engage with the archival footage providing new perspectives and personal insights into its political potential. What does the term “non-aligned” mean to them? And how did this history form their view of today’s world?

With contributions by e.a. feminist Francisca Pattipilohy (96, Indonesia), theater maker Hakim Traïdia (66, Algeria), performance artist Christian Guerematchi (41, Slovenia/Central African Republic), filmmaker Lidija Zelović (52, Yugoslavia) and historian Yulia Pattopang (40, Indonesia).

The title refers to the solar eclipses of 1961 and 1999. The first eclipse was welcomed by Yugoslav people with inquiring gazes in the streets. 30 years later, the country started its descent into madness, ending its century long history in a series of bloody wars. The second eclipse was welcomed with drawn curtains by frustrated citizens subject to media manipulation and prone to conspiracy theories.

These natural phenomena serve as a parable for the eclipse of common sense, happening both on the national level with the country drowning in fratricidal war, and on a personal level with one of the protagonists experiencing serious mental issues.

Nataša Urban’s father is a mountaineer. As the wars raged, he continued climbing and kept a diary. This diary, focusing on peculiarities of nature and climbing, is used as the voice-over for Nataša’s film, serving as an example of how people who lived inside a war-torn country, but outside the war-struck areas, often tried to do the impossible – continue their lives normally.

The director Nataša Urban, together with the sound designer Svenn Jakobsen and composers Jared Blum and Bill Gould (known as the bassist of Faith No More), joins us on-stage for a conversation about the morality of choosing to ‘act normal’ in abnormal times.

With an almost playful approach, Foragers exposes the intricate ways Israel abuses ecological laws to prevent Palestinians from gathering wild foods that have been essential to their cuisine for centuries. The special screening at De Balie will offer 40 lucky viewers an immersive experience – a dinner inspired by meals featured in the film, served in the cinema auditorium during the screening.

Palestinians have been picking za’atar and akoub in the wilderness for centuries. These two plants (wild oregano and a thistle that tastes like artichoke) are a staple of traditional cuisine. That’s why they insist on their right to wild harvest, despite wild-picking bans and Draconian fines.

In this hybrid documentary with several fictional sequences, Jumana Manna exposes the complicated system of discrimination but manages to maintain a level of delicate humor and warmth, despite the fact that her closest family members are directly affected. It is also grown almost exclusively by Jewish landowners, as Arabs own smaller tracts of land, making crop insurance unaffordable for them.

The dinner and screening are followed by a conversation, where the practices mentioned serve as an introduction to the broader topic of commodification – how capitalism seeks to cultivate everything from wild plants to our free time.

Chef Dennis’ menu:

Maftoul (seasoned with za’atar) served with artichoke hearts, grilled eggplant, roasted tomatoes & thyme-oil.

After almost fifty years of communism in Yugoslavia and a decade after the death of President Josip Broz Tito, Serbia held its first free elections. Even more free than necessary, the new law allowed people who collected only 100 signatures to run for president, resulting in a host of unlikely candidates, including a seller of used brooms, a philosopher with delusions and a registered junkie who ran in front of the Great Party of R ’n ‘R which advocated for who “sex, debauchery, madness and drugs.” This parade of strange characters competed against Slobodan Milošević, the then-communist leader, who easily won the elections and led the country into a decade of bloodshed.

Invoked explores this prologue to the most tragic chapters of Yugoslav history through rapid editing of clips from talk shows, election commercials and news broadcasts, immersing the viewer in the pandemonium of pre-war Yugoslavia. The archival footage is complemented by explorations of the equally peculiar lives the ex-candidates lead today as they reflect on their experiences.

After the film, we will engage in conversation with the directors reflecting on the elaborate way this film was constructed, and make connections to today’s world in which populism and nationalism seem to be gaining the upper hand.

In 1989, the peaceful student protest in Tiananmen Square was ruthlessly crushed by the Chinese regime. At the time activist Chinese-Korean Christine Choy, who has lived in America since she was a teenager, began work on a documentary about three Chinese people involved in the demonstration who fled to the United States.

She interviewed a student leader, an academic and a businessman who supported the protest, but never finished the film. Thirty years later, she revisits the interviewees. The difference between then and now is poignant. They started as boys burning with idealistic flames and dreaming of a democratic China, but became old pessimistic realists in the meantime. Their family never saw them back home, repression has only increased, and the West disappointed them as much as China for valuing trade more than human rights.

After the film, we talk with the filmmakers Ben Klein and Violet Columbus about the bygone dream of a democratic China and the pitfall of prioritizing trade over ethics, resulting in uncontrollable geopolitical events.

The Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when the Chinese regime ruthlessly crushed a peaceful student protest in Beijing, was not reason enough for most Western politicians to restrict trade with China or even make appropriate statements.

Humankind is in urgent need of new, fresh ideas in order to deal with contemporary crises and survive in the 21^st century. According to Mitch Altman, a legend among hackers in the United States, these ideas can be found in the philosophy of the hacker community.

Altman is co-founder of the hackerspace Noisebridge in San Francisco, a physical location open to everyone. This space enables people who are driven by enthusiasm, creativity and curiosity to experiment with technology and learn from each other. Experiencing the idea of community is fundamental and is illustrated by the one and only rule of the anarchistic Noisebridge: ‘be excellent to each other’.  

Nowadays, Altman shares his knowledge and is involved in creating new hackerspaces worldwide. His personal experience, as well as witnessing how hackerspaces have positively influenced the lives of others, shapes his perception of technology and lead him to view technology and the internet as promising and potentially life-changing. This evening, we discuss ideas for a new world, the importance of community and creativity, a better internet and how technology can help humankind.   

About Mitch Altman

Mitch Altman is a hacker and inventor, known for inventing TV-B-Gone, a keychain that turns off TVs in public places. He co-founded a successful Silicon Valley startup and did pioneering work in Virtual Reality. He is an author and teacher, and goes around the world giving talks and workshops. He is a co-founder of the hackerspace Noisebridge in San Francisco, a physical place open to everyone. The intention of the hackerspace was to create a space for people to meet and work on shared technological projects, driven by enthusiasm, creativity and curiosity to be able to experiment and learn from each other. The feeling of community is fundamental and is illustrated by the one and only rule of the anarchistic Noisebridge: ‘be excellent to each other’.

More over Techdenkers

A Black family from Harlem torn apart by a tragic event: Blue is a revolutionary and contemporary opera about racism and police violence in the United States. The libretto is written by Tazewell Thompson, who also directs the opera with which he brings a very personal and political story to the opera stage.

Moderator Isabel Sheridan discusses the themes of the opera and the opera world itself with the cast of Blue and other guests. How accessible is the opera world itself for people of colour? To what extent is there space for a political message within opera? What parallels do we see between the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and in the Netherlands, and what are the effects of the global spread of Black Lives Matter on its original message? 

Live music from the opera will be provided by one of Blue’s lead singers, bass Kenneth Kellogg. 

About Blue

Opera has rarely been as topical as Blue. In Harlem, a Black couple anticipates the birth of its firstborn son, with both hope and anxiety. The mother worries about her son’s future as she watches him become a young man and enter the world of activism.

Meanwhile, the father tries to open his son’s eyes to the realities of 21st century America, whilst simultaneously struggling with his own identity as a police officer, a ‘Black man in blue’. When the parents’ deepest fears come true, they have to find a way to cope with reality.