Rita Hoofwijk, who with Atlas van een (on)begaanbaar eiland conducts an investigation into the unlicensed parts of the nature reserve on Terschelling, places one visitor each time on the frontier between a licensed and an unlicensed area. Production-wise, her tools are minimal: she needs a shovel, a text and a piece of cloth to create an experience that stays with you. Working with and from the place where she finds herself is self-evident to her.

Theaterkrant | Evelyne Coussens

We try to understand ourselves not out of some narcissistic impulse, but because we know that self-knowledge and self-awareness, a sure sense of identity, are what allow us to create a path toward a full and generous life. To say ‘I am here’ or ‘I see you’ or ‘I love you’, to be ourselves to the fullest degree is what makes it possible not just to experience life at its fullest but to give ourselves most completely to the causes to which we are committed, to our children, to the people we love. 

Yet I am astonished that our most affecting experiences so often have to do with a sense of psychic diminishment. The acceptance that each of us is a bead of mist in the weather of the world is what connects us most. The smaller we become, the less we are, the greater our sense of connection and our sense of humanity. It is almost as though finding our place is a matter of losing it first. Perhaps the ability to navigate our way through these twinned circumstances of exposure and erasure is what is required of us.

from ‘How to Disappear’ by Akiko Busch