Residencies

• 18.08 > 23.08.2025
• 30.06 > 05.07.2025

“He twists his ton­gue insi­de-out in the vain hope of learning to speak like a coun­sel­lor. ​‘Is the­re real­ly nothing abo­ve the law?’ Is this the way, in this ske­wed pala­ce, by the­se hid­den stair­ca­ses, thanks to the­se dozing bai­liffs, on the­se worn car­pets, in the­se piles of paper and bound volu­mes, through the­se end­less dis­cus­si­ons, the­se can­did con­fes­si­ons of pre­ju­di­ce and igno­ran­ce, and this archaic com­pi­la­ti­on for­med by cut­ting and pas­ting obscu­re texts, that the reign of the law is esta­blis­hed?” (Bruno Latour, 2007)

In Palace of Justice, jud­ges, lawy­ers, defen­dants, ushers, clerks and cle­a­ning staff pass by, inter­pre­ted by two ima­gi­na­ti­ve actors. The the­a­tre per­for­man­ce del­ves into the ambigui­ties of juri­di­cal sys­tem. The judi­ci­a­ry is cri­ti­ci­zed for its cum­ber­so­me and unjust charac­ter; at the same time it needs to be defen­ded, sin­ce as a demo­cra­tic pil­lar it is under incre­a­sing pres­su­re today. The per­for­man­ce draws inspi­ra­ti­on from the Brussels Palace of Justice, one of the most impor­tant and bizar­re pie­ces of archi­tec­tu­ral heri­ta­ge in Belgium. Both a pala­ce and a ruin, end­les­sly under reno­va­ti­on, it is the per­fect allego­ry of the judi­ci­a­ry today. 

Based on clo­se obser­va­ti­ons of the buil­ding and its day-to-day ope­ra­ti­ons, Sébastien Hendrickx makes an ima­gi­na­ti­ve trans­la­ti­on to the black box of a the­a­ter. Palace of Justice is an intri­ca­te com­po­si­ti­on of move­ment, text, light and sound.

In a first research pha­se, Hendrickx orga­ni­zed a dozen of silent walks through the Brussels Palace of Justice, about which you can find more infor­ma­ti­on here.