After a two-year research process and a Dutch premiere last autumn, BAKENEKO by Charlotte Goesaert will have its Belgian premiere on February 25th.
This performance enters a resistant and hard-to-grasp terrain: that of child abuse and neglect, and above all the silence surrounding it. BAKENEKO is not a narrative that seeks to explain or resolve, but a work that creates space for what often remains out of sight, for what is not said, yet persistently present.
Goesaert immerses the audience in an experience that unsettles, touches, and lingers.
As performer and maker, she stands on stage in a physical solo about how trauma settles into the body: invisible to the outside world, yet deeply determining from within. The performance exposes the latent traces of abuse and neglect, while questioning the mechanisms that sustain them.
Drawing from conversations with people who encounter this reality through their societal roles, Goesaert weaves their voices, images, and sounds together with the expressive presence of her own body. The result is an intense scenic experience in which documentary elements and physical imagination challenge one another.
The performance does not offer reassuring answers. Instead, it foregrounds another kind of responsibility: not only that of the makers or the performer, but also that of the spectator and, more broadly, of a society that often only looks when it is already too late.
Why do we so often recognize the signs too late?
Why do we fail to intervene sooner?
What needs to change to better protect children?
How do we engage with a reality we would rather forget?
As dramaturg, Sara Vanderieck was involved in the development of this work, which unfolded step by step through research, doubt, and necessary choices.
BAKENEKO will have its Belgian premiere on February 25th at KAAP in Bruges.
