Monologues
for Nothing
Monologues for Nothing is a door-to-door Virtual Reality experience, in which young people leave messages for each other in virtual clouds. Especially for everyone from 14 to 21 years old who feels like the walls coming at them as a result of the lockdown.
With VR glasses, the participants enter a virtual world. In a magical flight, they hover above locations of their own city and then end up in the clouds. Messages from other young people are stored there and they can leave a 'cloud message' themselves. With this, the project offers an escape from loneliness and boredom in the corona time.
Earlier, on the initiative of Cultuurmakers Maastricht, a successful edition of Monologues for Nothing took place in Maastricht. At the initiative of Schouwburg De Domijnen, the project is now also taking place in Geleen-Zuid.
Tour dates
Neighborhood project - Maastricht
Spring 2021 (past)
Neighborhood project - Geleen-South
Summer 2021 (past)
Young Hearts Festival - Groningen
November 21 to 25, 2021 (past)
Movie house De Domijnen - Sittard
March 10, 2022 (last)
At the moment Monologues for Nothing is still touring secondary schools under the guidance of Kaleidoscoop Maastricht.
opO
Concept and direction: Celine Daemen // Art director: Aron Fels // Sound engineer: Wouter Snoei // Executive producer: Rosa Vrij // Dramaturgy (stage): Viola Karsten // Monologues for Nothing was produced by VIA ZUID in co-production with Cultuurmakers Maastricht and theater De Domijnen Sittard.
There is probably no young person who does not want to escape the rut called corona for a while. Director Celine Daemen (25) from Schimmert offers that opportunity with Monologues for Nothing. In it you 'fly' above Maastricht and make contact with others.
Imagine: you are flying through Maastricht. You start at the station, flutter through the Stationsstraat, over the bridge and the Grote Staat and then up. Up in the sky, among the clouds. That alone should be a pleasant experience in this time of lockdown. Although in reality you are still with both feet on the ground and you have glasses on that take you into that dream world.
Opera
Virtual reality is nothing new for Celine Daemen from Schimmert. She followed theater lessons with Kumulus and graduated in 2018 from the directing course of the Toneelacademie Maastricht. After graduating, she was given the opportunity to make productions for VIA ZUID and in the same year she received second prize at the Bilbao International Film Festival for The woman who wanted to be infinite and the Hustinx Stimulation Prize for her first virtual reality opera. ' The Opera of the Falling' . This was inspired by conversations with people with a psychological vulnerability, and was about isolation and feeling misunderstood.
It is therefore not surprising that Cultuurmakers Maastricht and VIA ZUID immediately thought of Daemen when they were looking for an artist who could come up with something to soften the loneliness that many young people feel during this period of pandemic. Although she prefers not to talk about loneliness. “I find it much more interesting how people connect with each other and have the need for contact.” That is why she has made the dream world - call it a kind of 'Magic Maastricht' - that she has created in virtual reality interactive.
With the virtual reality glasses she visits the rooms of adolescents and teenagers (aged 14 to 21 years) or, if the home situation does not allow it, she sees the young people in a community center. When they have the glasses on, they fly through Maastricht into the clouds. There they can make their own cloud by folding their hands open and answering a personal question aloud.
Daemen: “Name three things you and your best friend have in common, for example. Or: when was the last time you comforted someone? What do you want others to know about you? When touching the cloud, they can listen to the recordings of other young people. In this way, young people of very different ages and backgrounds still make anonymous contact with each other.”