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Six billion videos

Every second, an hour of video material is uploaded onto YouTube: that amounts to a decade per day. Together we view six billion of these videos every day. We dish out ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ and enjoy nothing more than offering detailed commentary. Or commentary on commentary, ideally anonymously.

Tristero is now performing a selection of these comments. The discussions that stem from this ‘digital exhaust valve’ tend to bog down in furious diatribes or complaints about spelling. But there are also useful, funny and sad conversations to be found. Guided by these comments, Tristero touches upon fundamental themes, such as the fragility of art and of freedom of speech. This leads to a drily humorous, sometimes disconcerting portrait of the globally linked YouTube community.

• Tristero is the Brussels-based theatre collective whose artistic core comprises Kristien De Proost, Youri Dirkx and Peter Vandenbempt. With a long history at Kaaitheater, they are synonymous with wry comedies, contemporary dramaturgy, movement theatre or a mix of all of these. They have previously used found material as the basis for a performance, such as The Search Project and Iemand van ons.