Oblivion

A crazy idea. A radical, destabilizing experience. For an entire year, the Belgian artist Sarah Vanhee accumulated all her personal garbage, real and intangible. Part art installation, part philosophical performance, the ocean of debris onstage is both beautiful and monstrous. Pushing the idea of caring to an extreme, Oblivion gives value to each thing, to each moment, reinvested in a slow celebration of things unhidden.

For over two hours, the artist suspends time and re-connects to what she once considered “trash”, recording what dies on a daily basis, and what remains. A pell-mell collection, this arsenal of objects, ideas, sounds and reading harvested during the course of a year immerses us into a world inside out, where the invisible becomes visible, where “waste” is transformed into affluence. A love song to what we throw away, Oblivion rattles the foundations of our consumer society. Spiritual, ecological and unexpected. Utterly fascinating.

Produced by Sarah Vanhee
Executive Producer CAMPO (Ghent)
Concept and performance Sarah Vanhee
Outside Eye Mette Edvardsen + Berno Odo Polzer
Sound Design Alma Söderberg + Hendrik Willekens
Voice Jakob Ampe
Production Assistant Linda Sepp
Technical Bart Huybrechts

Coproduced by CAMPO (Ghent) + HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) + Göteborgs Dans & Teater Festival + Noorderzon (Groningen) + Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels) + NXTSTP with the support of Culture Programme of the European Union
With the support of Flemish Authorities
Acknowledgements to Manyone (Brussels) + Pianofabriek Kunstenwerkplaats (Sint-Gillis) + Kaaitheater (Brussels)

Presented in association with Place des Arts + Carrefour international de théâtre (Québec)

Written by Elsa Pépin
Translated by Neil Kroetsch

Premiered at CAMPO, Ghent, on November 12, 2015