Residencies

• 28.09 > 02.10.2026
• 23.03 > 27.03.2026
• 02.03 > 13.03.2026
• 02.02 > 14.02.2026

In the visu­al essay In Future Hands, docu­men­ta­ry the­a­tre maker Hannes Dereere tries to make sen­se of the gro­wing con­cern around lower birth rates. Today, an incre­a­sing num­ber of peo­p­le are having fewer child­ren or none at all. Population pro­spects for the coming deca­des are drop­ping dras­ti­cally. As poli­ti­cians seem des­pe­ra­te to con­vin­ce peo­p­le to make more babies, eco­no­mists and tech­no­crats look ahead with gro­wing con­cern: will the eco­no­mic and poli­ti­cal struc­tu­res of today sur­vi­ve tomorrow’s decli­ning population?

At the core of In Future Hands is a research of over 60 hours of con­ver­sa­ti­ons that Hannes under­took together with his part­ner Silke Huysmans. For two years, they tal­ked to a diver­se group of peo­p­le such as poli­ti­cians, care­gi­vers, sci­en­tists, acti­vists, inves­tors, psy­cho­ana­lysts, phi­lo­sop­hers, for­tu­ne tel­lers etc. star­ting from the ques­ti­on: would we like to have child­ren one day?

Now, one year later, Hannes revi­sits the recor­dings of the­se con­ver­sa­ti­ons and wea­ves them together alongsi­de found foot­a­ge. The result is an inter­ge­ne­ra­ti­o­nal col­la­ge of inter­views that reflects on an uncer­tain futu­re, and see­ks to unra­vel a dis­cri­mi­na­to­ry and exploi­ta­ti­ve focus on popu­la­ti­on num­bers. The inti­ma­te star­ting point slow­ly devel­ops into a much broa­der ques­ti­on: what kind of world do we want to pass on in the hands of tho­se who come after us?