The Brussels theatre-maker Isabelle Dumont has put together a ‘cabinet of curiosities’, a colourful collection of ‘artificialia and naturalia’ – art objects and wonders of animal kingdom. She was guided by her amazement, always welcoming surprises, and is now sharing her delight with the public. On the basis of this collection she tells a story about the relationship between man and the animals down the ages.

A plea for imagination at the heart of Europe, where dreams are coming under increasing pressure. Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s famous speech in Washington (1963), the Belgian-Nigerian novelist Chika Unigwe and the Brussels political scientist and sociologist Philippe Van Parijs tell us in full their dreams for tomorrow’s world.

In Toestand a woman (Kristien De Proost) takes a good look at herself. She analyses herself with detachment and reveals herself in all sincerity to her audience. She promises to be objective and to confine herself to the facts. External features can be verified. But is this not an illusion? Doesn’t the truth lie precisely in what she does not reveal?

The philosopher Vinciane Despret asks 26 intriguing and pertinent questions about what animals do, want and ‘think’. This yields marvellous and sometimes hilarious stories, told by scientists, animal-tamers, zookeepers, etc. Stories that make us think. We are screening two short documentaries made in 2005 by film-maker and activist Didier Demorcy, to which Vinciane Despret also contributed, one on sheep, one on wolves.

PERFORMATIK2013 - Conversations with performing artists and curators in a relaxed atmosphere. Tonight with Alexander-Maximilian Giesche, Lea Letzel, Meggy Rustamova, Zhana Ivanova & Sarah van Lamsweerde. Moderator: Pieter T’Jonck.