Uplifter Rueben joined Darren in Rotterdam. Photo: Hielke Grootendorst
Whispers in Silence is a performance created in collaboration with a group of young people from the neighbourhood Cool in Rottterdam. Together with the Aalsmeersch Bloemenhuis and Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art. It is a meditation in complete silence about remembrance, war and peace performed in the festival Coolstof
Long-term London collaborators Ruya and Rueben joined myself and Alice Fleming in Rotterdam to collaborate with With de Witte Centre for Contemporary Art to devise the project with some young people from Rotterdam: Nino, Fleur, and Julia.
“I prefer working with people I don’t know, because in the future I will be talking to people that I’ve never met before, more often. I tried to make a way to communicate, I would point to something and talk slower. I connect with them, and rolled with them. It’s good experience for being a politician.”
—Reuben
“Some people forget to meditate so it’s to remind people to meditate from more often. The project was about Remembrance Day in Holland, we decided to create a meditation piece with Dutch kids and English kids. We were teaching each other some language.
We all came together for a piece in a flowershop, within in one day we created a performance together. Sometimes the audience were shocked but then you got to see them enjoy it. First I was nervous, and last time in London I didnít perform because I was too nervous, but this time I realised I wasn’t scared anymore.”
—Ruya