A Day is a Hundred Years

In his work, scenographer and theatre-maker Jozef Wouters always relates to an existing place, a building, ...  At A Day is a Hundred Years he interweaves the story of Decoratelier, with that of Barry Ahmad Talib, an artist from Sagale (Guinea), also caretaker of Decoratelier. They have shared the studio since 2019. To make A Day is a Hundred Years, Joseph and Barry cut thousands of leaves from pieces of fabric for Barry's tree sculptures. The conversations they had while working long hours created a connection between Sagale and Brussels. A place that is neither there nor here, but somewhere in between.

It is Decoratelier's façade that plays the lead on stage.  Traditional theatre techniques such as infinis and trompe l'oeil are combined with a revolving stage and a cast that mainly consists of technicians. The show spins off into an urban plan in the form of a simple fable.  

That is also how A Day is a Hundred Years dramatises the exchange between open and closed, private and public, that so defines our urban reality.  

• Jozef Wouters (Born in 1986 in Belgium) is a scenographer, theatre-maker and visual artist who lives and works in Brussels. His work often relates to a specific location and engages with spaces, social processes and collective imagination. He has been an integral part of Damaged Goods since 2017. Wouters founded Decoratelier along with technical director Menno Vandevelde in 2016. His most recent performances are INFINI (2016-now); Underneath Which Rivers Flow (2019), The Soft Layer (2019/2021/2024) and A Day is a Hundred Years (2023). He also creates scenographies for various artists and organisations inside and outside the performing arts.

• Decoratelier is a constantly evolving project based in a former factory in Molenbeek. From 2016 to April 2024, Decoratelier operates as an artists' workspace and incubator for interdisciplinary collaborations and social experimentation. The first project to take shape within the walls of Decoratelier was Atelier III (2017). In summer 2020, Decoratelier hosted the outdoor festival Something when it doesn't rain, a heterogeneous programme of workshops, music, performances, screenings and more, organised in close collaboration with local residents and local organisations and artists. Ever since, Decoratelier has organised an annual summer festival. In 2021, Wouters and Decoratelier designed and built the open-air swimming pool FLOW in Anderlecht, an initiative of Pool is Cool, together with around 50 local young people. For the grandstand system underlying FLOW and many other grandstands, forms of scenography and (location) projects by Decoratelier, Jozef Wouters received a Henry Van de Velde Award 2022 in the 'Spaces' category. FLOW was nominated for the European Prize for Public Space in 2022 and was shortlisted for the European Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies Van der Rohe Awards in 2023. Jozef Wouters was in 2019 awarded the Flemish Culture Prize (Ultima) in the performing arts category for Decoratelier together with co-founder and technical director Menno Vandevelde.