The Beach

The beach – beloved by holiday makers, a popular social space and a place for play, relaxation, seduction, eroticism, and encounters – is rich with codes, scripts, and rituals. The beach, an environment of (half-) naked bodies, water, exposure to the sun and to the gaze of others. 

The beach is both endearing and cruel. Everyone is equal before the laws of the sea, the sand, and the waves. But at the same time (especially among young people), there are hierarchies: who is the most attractive, the thinnest, the most muscular, the most popular? 

We follow thirteen young performers to the beach for a day, for a short or longer stay. They pass by in pairs, groups, or alone. With friends, family, or strangers. On the beach, weird tensions arise between inertia and action, the public and the intimate. The beach is an invitation to get to know the young performers better. What lies beneath their lightly sunburnt skin?

• Sarah Vanhee is an artist, performer and author. Her interdisciplinary work moves between public space and the institutional art field. She has worked in prisons, living rooms, open spaces, theatres, conference rooms, etc. She previously appeared in the Kaaitheater programme with the lecture performance collected screams, and the documentary film The Making of Justice, shot in a prison.