The Soft Layer

Can renovation also add layers rather than just remove them?

This performance is a continuation of The Soft Layer (Tunis), a site-specific work that took place from 2017 to 2019 in the historic building of Dar Bairam Turki in Tunis, as part of Dream City. Over several years scenographer Jozef Wouters collected stories and ideas from the inhabitants of the building. Inside its courtyard a group formed of young architects, neighbors, actors and one science fiction writer. Together, they undertook the renovation of the beautiful 17th century Ottoman palace. A different kind of renovation, one that doesn’t remove but adds a layer—a soft and temporary layer made of collective memories, stories and opinions about the building. Part of the work was a text that turns the building into a score, to be read at sunset as an act of care and a collective meditation on a building. If the past is the only imaginable future, then where are we now?

At the invitation of KANAL, Jozef Wouters will restage the text of The Soft Layer in the courtyard of Decoratelier in Molenbeek. Four local actors will come together for one day to learn the original score by heart, helped by Decoratelier’s team of constructors, who will rebuild parts of Dar Bairam Turki as mnemonic devices for the performers to recall their text and imagine the building.