PROTOCOL

PROTOCOL aims to be a ritual for invoking these new gods, giving shape to the chaos of our reality. 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. Each element — dance, music, light and scenography — steadily moves from zero towards a climax. Within this dynamic of accumulation and interaction between dancers and music, a liminal space opens up in which the new gods of our time can appear.

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 observed the structures and figures of power that were taking over their surroundings, and began to perform them. 

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.

The designers of AI themselves do not know how AI works exactly, and for now it is largely a matter of marketing expectations: AI is therefore a question of belief. At the same time, AI is artificial human intelligence: it learns from all human knowledge and from our interactions with it. It will therefore simulate a model of humanity that does not really exist, that is almost too human, yet that can continue without us.

Populist, authoritarian Leaders who refuse to let reality get in their way likewise demand absolute belief, whether it is Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Bukele or Kim Jong-Un. They almost develop a love affair with their voters (and with themselves), thereby blinding them to their actual policies.

The Climate Catastrophe is such a vast and far-reaching crisis that it is not so much its existence that is a matter of belief, but rather our relationship to it. It is such an enormous phenomenon that, as a whole, it becomes abstract, and personal conviction therefore plays a role in how we respond to it. The climate catastrophe, unfolding relentlessly, confronts us with the power of Gaia — not only the Greek goddess of the Earth, but also the idea that all living matter on Earth functions as a single organism. There are no intentions, but there are devastating consequences, such as the wildfires in Europe and the floods in Nepal and Tibet this summer.

And finally, the Ego. Individualism, social media and neoliberalism have made the Ego into something divine: we are our own gods and create our own image. As British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis recently said in an interview: “Others will look back at us in a hundred years’ time and say that our conformity was self-expression.”

In Kris Verdonck’s work, human characters are often portrayed as a standardised middle class: men and women in business suits, neatly dressed as they carry on while their surroundings collapse. Keep calm and carry on. PROTOCOL turns to another class, in an attempt to understand the world today: that of the all-powerful. They have a different ‘protocol’, are more self-conscious and use theatricality to emphasise their power, just as the dancing Sun King Louis XIV did, and as the G20 and gatherings in Davos do today.

The costumes (by 113 Maison) place the figures in this performance more on the red carpet of the Met Gala than on their way to an office job. AI, mad leaders, the Ego and climate catastrophe are together the four horsemen of the apocalypse of our time. It is above all the combination of different forces — as is also the case in meetings between AI CEOs, heads of government and investors — that creates a dangerous situation.

Power seduces — as the American ambassador to Italy said about his superyacht: "people want to be close to success". Behind the smiles and friendliness towards the cameras lies a profound indifference. Power turns away and retreats into the darkness. The image presented to the outside world differs drastically from the world behind the closed doors of palaces, private islands or nuclear bunkers. Something is shifting there, too. In his study of the super-rich, journalist Evan Osnos observed that the world’s powerful no longer consider being ‘loved’ important and instead have become unreachable and shamelessly preoccupied with themselves. The relationship with the public is also a game that the figures in PROTOCOL must continue to play, even as it becomes increasingly bitter.

In PROTOCOL, we see performers who, through dance and together with the musicians, embody an entity, thereby revealing its violence and dynamics. Live drums, viola da gamba and newer instruments such as the Paetzold (a double bass recorder) and the Soma (a synthesiser controlled by breath and mouth) are combined with electronics. The pressure and drive created by sound in older theatrical traditions such as Noh theatre and Baroque music thus carry through into the beats of techno and noise music — musical rituals that have emerged since the 1990s for an ever-accelerating, dystopian world.

One researcher described the Hauka ritual as ‘horrific comedy’. This tension between horror and parody is also explored in the performance. Parody literally means ‘a song beside’: it is neither an imitation of nor an identification with the new gods, but a version that exists ‘alongside’ them. Parody, as a way of gaining a grip on the chaos caused by the ‘extravagant parade of unrestrained autocrats, tech magnates, reactionaries and conspiracy theorists eager to engage in confrontation’.  (Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Wolves).