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Happiness

Short & sweet

From a small concrete building the installation Happiness explores the world of artificial happiness, which is made increasingly available to us through drugs, painkillers, and anti-depressants.

Still curious?

It looks like a mix between a public toilet and a pharmacy. An illegal shop staffed by a humanoid robot. She talks to us about different drugs, painkillers, and anti-depressants we can use to adjust our emotional reality by changing the serotonin and dopamine levels in our brain. With the combination of robots and pharmaceuticals, the installation explores the zone where the human and the artificial merge; where, aided by synthetic drugs, we can rehumanize or
become more than human. Or escape our human condition altogether for a while.

Happiness is created by the renowned Dutch artist Dries Verhoeven. One of the most debated artists of our time. In the borderland between performance and installation art, he highlights various aspects of the common social reality in which we live.

Supported by The Performing Arts Fund NL


Spilleperiode
15. - 18. jun 2023

Scene Outdoor

TIME

Thursday 14.00-22.00

Friday 14.00-22.00

Saturday 14.00-22.00

Sunday 10.00-18.00

LOCATION KLOSTERTORVET

PRICE Free

AGE For youngsters and adults

LANGUAGE English


#netherlands #installation #robot #happiness #reality


The people behind

Concept: Dries Verhoeven

Production: Studio Dries Verhoeven

Dramaturgy: Hella Godee

Creation humanoid: Chris Creatures Filmeffects

Digital puppeteering: Stefano Trambusti

Director assistant: Bart van de Woestijne

Voice: Annie Saunders

Sound: Jimi Zoet

Understudy: Yurie Umamoto

Costume: Saskia Schoenmaker

Head of technique: Roel Evenhuis

Technical manager: Peer Thielen

Software: Sylvain Vriens

Photo Credit: Willem Popelier

Happiness is co-commissioned by SPRING Festival Utrecht and NDSM-werf foundation,and is made possible with the support of Fonds Podiumkunsten, Gemeente Utrecht, BPD Cultuurfonds, Fonds Fentener van Vlissingen, stimuleringsfonds creatieve industrie, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and BNG Cultuurfonds.