PROTOCOL 29.11.26 @ KANAL - Centre Pompidou
Who or what are the new gods of our time?
Musicians (Ofer Smilansky, Ruben Martinez Orio and Eva Reiter) and dancers (Mooni Van Tichel, Elsa Tagawa, Robson Ledesma and Magdelaine Hodebourg) play together with anticipation and build-up. Starting from minimal sounds, gestures, and silence, they search for an intense, overwhelming crescendo. A liminal space opens up in which the new gods of our time can appear.
Drawing on the pressure and drive of sound in older theatrical traditions such as Noh theatre, PROTOCOL moves into the beats of techno and noise music — musical rituals that emerged in the 1990s, reflecting an ever-accelerating, dystopian world.
Power seduces — as the American ambassador said in Italy about his superyacht: "People want to be close to success".
Curious? Watch the trailer below!
PROTOCOL | KANAL - Centre Pompidou | Opening Weekend
Sunday 29.11.26 | 17:00
Sunday 29.11.26 | 20:30
Les Maîtres Fous
An inspiration for PROTOCOL is the Hauka ritual from the first half of the twentieth century in Ghana and Niger, as depicted in Jean Rouch’s 1955 documentary Les Maîtres Fous. In these rituals, members of the community — primarily Ghanaians and Nigeriens for whom the urban context and the colonial structure of society were relatively new — allowed themselves to become possessed by the new gods of technology, the city and power.
They created their own interpretations of generals, commanders, buildings, the locomotive, weapons, round-table discussions and the protocols of power of the British colonial occupier. There are different interpretations of the reasons behind and the meaning of this ritual, but in any case it offers an artistic strategy for giving form to social dynamics.
So who or what are the new gods today, and how can we relate to them? What are the protocols of power in 2026?
In PROTOCOL, they are the Mad Politician, AI, the Ego and Climate Catastrophe.
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