I Am (Not) Here

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Do you like being in the spotlight or do you prefer to stay safe in the dark? With this question, the artists got to work with 750 pupils from 7 primary schools in Almere. In I Am (Not) Here we discover how children think about this question, which is so important in our time in which remaining visible or a little invisible (and both are okay!) has become so important. Enter eight luminous gates in a dreamy landscape of light and audio fragments and hear these children speak, in spoken word stories composed from their own lines of poetry.

MEET THE ARTISTS:
Since her training at the Maastricht Theatre Academy, Pieternel Bollmann has been working as an all-round theatre maker, often together with BonteHond. For example, she worked on theatre performances ‘Dit vind jij leuk’ (lunch performance Bellevue), the performance ‘Geen I.D.’ at AZC Almere and ‘Eigen schuld’, a performance about debt counselling. For BonteHond she also makes the ‘De Podcast van BonteHond', a podcast for and with children.

Vasileios Apostolatos is a lighting designer and scenographer and has worked internationally and mainly in the Netherlands on theatre productions such as 'Antigone' (Toneelschuur), Bacchae (Het Nationale Theater), 'Waiting for Godot' (ALSTADT), and several productions for BonteHond, Rabarber, Korzo and Festival Cultura Nova since his training in his native Greece. In 2024, as director and scenographer, he created the performance Stille Zonde / The Dirty Work at ALSTADT.

QUOTE FROM THE ARTISTS:
Pieternel Bollmann & Vasileios Apostolatos: The spotlight is prominently present in the lives of all children these days, we wanted to play with that, literally. But certainly also with the moment when you don't even have to do anything, don't have to choose anything and can just daydream with your thoughts between the trees.

CREDITS:
Technical advice: Pieter Lustig / lighting programming: Tobias Reinartz / recruitment of schools/students: Silvia Servais, Collage Almere / sound mastering: Mark Pilk

I Am (Not) Here was commissioned by ALLUMINOUS light art festival, in collaboration with BonteHond.