The Tip of the Tongue

In the 19th century, it was very common to attend astronomy performances. In an age of immense scientific progress, the planetarium was a refuge for both fact and fiction. This mingling of the heavenly and earthly produced cosmological narratives that made sense of the position of humankind and technology in a rapidly evolving world.

Fast forward to 2019. Pieter De Buysser’s tale begins in Argentina while giving a lecture on the writer Letizia Álvarez de Toledo. When he meets the mysterious Grace and detective Raymond, things quickly get out of hand. First on an ocean barge that ends up facing a storm, and then in an 11-dimensional library comprising an infinite number of hexagonal galleries. High time to reinstate the astronomy performance! And where better place than at the Brussels Planetarium?

• During the Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2017, Pieter De Buysser premiered his live theatre performance and full-dome film The Tip of the Tongue on location at the Planetarium of Brussels. He is now reprising the production for an entire season: on the eleventh day of every month at eleven minutes past eight.