The Body as Archive

How political systems live on in our bodies

As student protests shake Belgrade, theatremaker Sanja Mitrović keeps a diary from Brussels. The distance sharpens her gaze on the invisible traces that political systems have left in her own body. Her notes lead back to the Yugoslavia of her youth, to her father’s letters, and to her hometown, which has already changed its name three times.

diary 08.09.2026

Artistic Autonomy after Gaza

How cultural censorship in Berlin suppresses solidarity

Berlin’s long-celebrated art scene is in danger. Dalia Maini, editor-in-chief of the Berlin street newspaper Arts of the Working Class, dissects Germany’s new cultural McCarthyism, where state funding has been weaponised against Palestinian solidarity. Maini exposes Germany’s bureaucratic trap designed to paralyse collective action and restrict artistic freedom. How can a cultural scene resist under the crushing weight of political pressure, administrative isolation, and self-censorship?

Dalia Maini

essay 08.09.2026

State of the Future 2026 – Frederico Araujo

A Forest of the Future

On September 2, 2026, Frederico Araujo delivered his State of the Future during the opening ceremony of the TheaterFestival at KVS in Brussels. “We know that making a living as an artist is difficult for a person who was born here. Imagine what it is like for someone who was not?”

Frederico Araujo

statement 02.09.2026

Making theatre at the standstill of time [ENG]

Outside eyes from Bangkok

In her second column, Thai producer and artist Sasapin Siriwanij writes about the temporal discrepancy in Bangkok. The city is evolving at a furious pace, but the Ministry of Culture is turning back time and promoting Thai identity and traditional clothing. Everything is fast-changing, yet people feel they are not moving anywhere. In the refuge of the theater however, artists can set up their own kind of clock.

Sasapin Siriwanij

column 01.09.2026

When power performs absence [EN]

Outside eyes from Teheran

After the ceasefire in April, Nasim Ahmadpour observed a strange phenomenon emerging in the streets of Tehran: state-sponsored carnivals with light shows and scantily dressed women dancing—activities for which, until recently, you would end up in prison. The regime no longer suppresses the language of resistance; it has learned to read that language and appropriate it. 

Nasim Ahmadpour

column 08.07.2026

Une mère renaît dans la poésie de son fils [FR]

Outside Eyes: Mbanza-Ngungu

Dans sa deuxième chronique, le metteur en scène Michael Disanka revient sur sa performance, créée le mois dernier au Kunstenfestivaldesarts, un hommage à sa mère disparue. Pour ce faire, il a traversé les ruines de l’histoire du Congo tapie des charniers et génocides oubliés. Mais plutôt qu’un théâtre qui rejoue la violence de la domination coloniale pour la critiquer, Disanka croit en la poésie comme forme de résistance, le corps étant une porte vers un autre monde, sacré. C’est seulement ainsi que l’on peut s’approcher de la vérité – non pas la vérité historique, mais celle de l’âme éternelle.

Michael Disanka

column 17.06.2026

A Flower of Forgetfulness – Apichatpong Weerasethakul

A multitude of light lines [ENG]

According to Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, we are trapped in time, in our memories, and in our desire for continuity. In his new installation for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, a collaboration with his regular artistic partners Rueangrith Suntisuk, Pornpan Arayaveerasid, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, and Koichi Shimizu, he makes a sensory plea for forgetting, to experience the world anew with an open mind.

Jana Coorevits

review 11.06.2026