Documentary

Nicole Beutler

in Eyes Wide Open

character

Nicole Beutler

director

Floris-Jan van Luyn

country

The Netherlands

duration

14 min

year

2023

In an ongoing series of theatre productions, Nicole Beutler explores how humans are inflicting irreversible damage on planet earth. What does our future look like? Her plays envision the necessary transformation of the position of humans on earth: the end of the Anthropocene takes centre stage. She describes this process as “going into the dark with your eyes wide open”.

Beutler combines a strong artistic vision with room for joint decision-making. By inviting her team to bring their own visions to the table, she creates a collective work of art while challenging traditional conceptions of leadership.

In the film, we see Nicole Beutler working on GINKGO or: 56 million years ago there were palm trees on the North Pole. A confrontational dance opera about the end of the world as we know it, and the first performance of her RITUALS OF TRANSFORMATION trilogy.

About Nicole Beutler

The productions of choreographer and theatre maker Nicole Beutler (1969) are often the product of a rigorous process of research and encounters and exchanges between artists and disciplines. With a strong artistic vision and room for the performers’ own input Beutler builds Gesamtkunstwerken which bring together visual arts, theatre and dance – artfully designed, intellectually challenging and rooted in history. In her current trilogy RITUALS OF TRANSFORMATION (towards a new humanity) she searches for a new worldview in which humans, animals, objects and earth exist in balance.