Begüm Erciyas works in her performances with the power of the voice and the act of speaking. After the successful Voicing Pieces, this year she presents a new creation that focuses on the experience of the voice as an uncanny medium. Because, although we use it to express our personal convictions and feelings, in the digital age we are often in doubt about who is speaking: is it a person or a machine?

This doubt and this conviction alternate constantly in Pillow Talk. Spread over a hilly landscape, the public enters into a dialogue with a virtual conversation partner. An artificial voice functions as a mediator, a companion and a mirror. While conversations are being constructed one word at a time, impressions are being shared, naps are being taken and time passes, Pillow Talk invites you to engage in an intimate relationship with the non-human.

Concept & direction Begüm Erciyas Scenography Elodie Dauguet Light design Jan Maertens Sound design Adolfina Fuck Interface developer Ruben van de Ven Dramaturgy Marnix Rummens Script collaboration Adolfina Fuck, Katja Dreyer, Dennis Deter, Hermann Heisig, Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias Production & PR Barbara Greiner Artistic advice David Weber-Krebs Research support Robert M. Ochshorn, Holger Heissmeyer, Ewa Bankowska, Jozef Wouters, Diego Agulló, Vincent Roumagnac, Taro Inamura, Michael Spranger

Production Begüm Erciyas, Platform 0090 Coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, STUK Leuven, PACT Zollverein Essen, Centre Dramatique National Nanterre-Amandiers Supported by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès within the framework of the New Settings Program Research support wpZimmer Antwerp, Q-O2 Brussels, Saison Foundation Tokyo, kunstencentrum BUDA, Kortrijk Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and Flemish Community, Ministry of Culture