Some use for your broken clay pots
What if … our democracy were fundamentally different?
Some use for your broken clay pots refers to the voting system in the Athenian city state in which a political leader who became too powerful could be banished. Greek citizens could write the name of the politician in question on a shard of pottery. Christophe Meierhans starts out from this form of ostracism to fundamentally question our current democratic system.
Some use for your broken clay pots is therefore an exercise in constitutional creativity. The script of his performance is nothing but a new constitution for a radically different democratic state. Meierhans developed it in collaboration with specialists at several Belgian universities. The text provides an overview of all the institutions, bodies, laws and procedures necessary to set up a new democratic system. If we assume that our identity as a ‘Western citizen’ reflects what is written in our constitution, then the question arises of what new type of citizen will emerge if we overturn the constitutional regulations. It is up to the spectator to imagine what our lives would be like under these new conditions.
• The Swiss artist Christophe Meierhans lives and works in Brussels. He works with and in the context of performances, public spaces, theatre, installations, sound, music and video.
His work consists mainly of developing strategies to break away from our everyday lives and protocol.
conceived & performed by Christophe Meierhans | dramaturgy Bart Capelle | conceptual advisor Rudi Laermans | advising team Anne-Emmanuelle Bourgaux (ULB), Rudi Laermans (KUL), Jean-Benoît Pilet (ULB), Dave Sinardet (VUB) | constitutional jurist Anne-Emmanuelle Bourgaux | scenography Sofie Durnez | concept & graphic design publication The Theatre of Operations | illustration Nuno Pinto Da Cruz | co-production Kaaitheater, Workspace Brussels, Kunstencentrum Vooruit (Gent), Maria Matos (Lissabon), BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels) | production Mokum | support Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie & Vlaamse Overheid
a House on Fire project; with the support of the culture program of the European Union
