The Five Encounters
5. Do we want to see everything?
Program
entrance €15,-
14.00 - 15.50 Pop Up Cinema movie program: Funny Games by Michael Haneke.
14.00 - 18.30 continuous short videos "Do I really want to see this?"
14.30 - 16.00 Workshop by art collective YAFF in collaboration with The Long Tail of Art.
16.15 - 16.40 Performance by martial artist Merel Severs in collaboration with DansBrabant.
17:00 - 18:15 - Panel discussion: philosopher Marjan Slob, visual artist Hester Scheurwater, theologian Tabitha van Krimpen and philosopher/ jurist Jurriën Hamer, moderated by journalist and Doortje Smithuijsen.
18:30 - 19:00 - concert: punk rock band Chattermag.
19:00 - 20:00 - concert: The Five, music & dance film by Merijn Bisschops in response to the book De Vijf by A.H.J. Dautzenberg. Performed by Zwerm & Karen Willems.
Porn is within reach with one click and extreme scenes of violence stream effortlessly into our living rooms. Meanwhile, nipples are censored on social media and taboo-breaking art is removed from platforms. This way, not only what we see shifts, but also what we find acceptable or reprehensible. Who sets the boundaries of our artistic freedom?
The right to express ourselves is a foundation of democracy. Art that explores the boundaries also shows the uncomfortable and ugly of man. Not every confrontation leads to deepening.
In this meeting you step into a space where nothing is self-evident. Where you not only listen and watch, but experience what happens when something becomes uncomfortable or feels liberating. Together with artists, thinkers and performers, we investigate art that confronts, words that can hurt and images we may prefer to close our eyes to.
Are there limits to what we can say and show? And who decides that?
How do artists deal with censorship, protests and threats?
How do platforms and algorithms influence what we do and do not see?
When does confrontational art go too far?
If we think we have the right to everything, where are our duties?
A production by IoA, in co-production with DansBrabant & Pop Up Cinema. Made possible by the Municipality of Tilburg and the Province of North Brabant.
foto: Marenne de Boer
Chattermag
6 punk rockers fly on a magpie. No idea. On his back sit 3 screaming riot girlzzz, 3 boyz dangling in his beak. They shout everything mixed up: about Chattermags, a hair salon, bombs and an old phone. (PICK UP THE PHONE!!!)
The thing collapses and they end up on a stage somewhere in our rainland. There are instruments. There is an audience. No one asks questions. They just start playing.
Don't try to let the frontwoman bite your face off.
Marjan Slob
Marjan Slob is a philosopher, writer and speaker. She regularly publishes in national media and has written several award-winning books. She also writes essays and columns for de Volkskrant and Filosofie Magazine, among others. From April 2023 to April 2025, she was Denker des Vaderlands. She explores deeper layers of problems and sees it as her task, as an audience philosopher, to articulate her findings clearly and in an accessible way.
foto: Robert van Hall
Hester Scheurwater
Hester Scheurwater disrupts. With ruthless self-portraits, she fillets the way women's bodies are consumed, directed and judged. What at first glance seems voyeuristic or explicit turns out to be a strategic reversal: Scheurwater pulls control towards him and forces the viewer to question his own gaze.
Educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, she uses her own body as a battleground. In mirror images, performances and photographic interventions, she plays with the boundary between subject and object, without ever being reduced to a victim. Her work is confrontational, sexually explicit and uncomfortable; exactly where social hypocrisy around female sexuality becomes visible.
Scheurwater considers her practice to be a “visual pamphlet”: a direct, unfiltered response to the double standard that both sexualizes and censors women. Her images leave the safe walls of the museum and appear in public space – on the street, in stickers, online – as a form of visual resistance to commercial and digital control.
At a time when social media simultaneously exploits and restricts the body, Scheurwater demands space back. Not subtle, but unmistakably present.
Tabitha van Krimpen
Tabitha van Krimpen moves at the intersection of business administration, theology and society. In 2021-2022 she was Jonge Theoloog des Vaderlands and ambassador of theology in society for a year. Her first book 'Bottom-up Church: being where the twenties are' was published in June 2023. Since November 2023, she has been conducting doctoral research on moral leadership and moral courage at both the Vrije Universiteit and the Protestant Theological University. In addition, she writes opinion articles for the Nederlands Dagblad, gives regular lectures and is co-founder of the Theological Film Club in Utrecht.
foto: Frank Ruiter
Jurriën Hamer
Jurriën Hamer is a philosopher, lawyer and columnist at the daily newspaper Trouw. In 2021, he published his first book, Waarom schurken pech hebben en helden geluk, which was awarded the Socrates Prize for the best philosophy book of the year. His second book, Wat vrijheid van je vraagt, will be published in 2026. He studied law and philosophy at Utrecht University, and also received his doctorate there. After this, he worked at the Rathenau Institute, where he advised politicians and policymakers on the social impact of digital technology. Meanwhile, Jurriën is teaching at the university again, about ethics and political philosophy.
Doortje Smithuijsen
Doortje Smithuijsen (1992) is a journalist, philosopher, writer and documentary filmmaker. Her recently published pamphlet Kapitalisme is Seksisme was praised and was on the bestseller list for weeks. She is also currently working on her own TV series for KRO-NCRV and is writing columns for De Volkskrant. A large audience now also knows her from her podcast VSR (Voorheen Schaamteloos Randstedelijk) and the interview podcast Old Girls Network.
In her work, Doortje focuses mainly on the social and societal consequences of digitization. For example, she explores our dependence on phones and computers, the living environment of YouTubers and influencers, the influence of online cancellation culture. Previously she made the documentaries for the VPRO My daughter the vlogger, Are you still following me? And Social Tribunal. She regularly writes articles for De Volkskrant and Vrij Nederland, and had a biweekly column in Trouw.
In 2020, Doortje's first book Gouden Bergen bij de Bezige Bij was published. It ended up on the shortlist of the Brusse Prize, for the best journalistic book of the year. In 2022, Iedereen Verslaafd followed. Doortje is a popular guest on radio and TV programs and regularly gives lectures and presentations about her work.
Workshop YAFF i.s.m. The Long Tail of Art.
Welcome to the Weird and the Dirty Are you attracted to what is 'weird', messy or a little 'dirty'? In this workshop we create a panorama in which we give space to what is normally considered 'too weird' or 'too dirty'. Can we imagine a world in which our vices and virtues become visible? We are working towards a situation in which (im)trudes are given the space to be imagined with aesthetic sensitivity.
YAFF in s.m. The Long Tail of Art. In this alliance of collectives, we join forces for this workshop. We are two art collectives committed to opening up the imagination within the dilemmas of this time. We focus on the arts because there we can develop strategies that keep the imagination open and leave room for the unpredictable.
Merel Severs
Merel Severs is a choreographer, performer and martial artist known for making physical and visual performances that challenge social structures. Inspired by intersectional feminism, body politics and martial arts, Severs has developed a unique performance language that emphasizes the strength, flexibility and resilience of the human body. Her work questions the violent structures of the world around her, using the transforming power of the body to explore themes such as vulnerability, anger and care.
Severs made her debut with the solo performance 'Let Me Tell You Something You Already Know' (2020), which won the Best of Fringe award and earned a nomination for the BNG Bank Theater Prize. She followed this with 'Try Not To Know What You Know' (2022), which also yielded a nomination for the prestigious award. Her latest work, 'Coerced & Freely Given' (2024), continues the exploration of the strength and tenderness of the body in times of political despair. Severs reinvented this work as a cinematic experience in 'To be present, but sometimes forgotten' (2024) Her work is a testament to the transforming potential of the body and its ability to challenge and reform the world. Her work balances the personal and the political. She seeks radical shamelessness and a celebration of vulnerability.
Funny Games - Michael Haneke
'𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦. 𝘞𝘦'𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦.'
A well-to-do family arrives at their holiday home on a quiet lake. The atmosphere is disturbed when two young men stand at the door. What follows is a sadistic psychological game.
Funny Games by Michael Haneke constantly gives the viewer an uncomfortable mirror. About how violence is consumed as entertainment, and what that says about us as spectators.
Zwerm & Karen Willems: The Five
The Five is a raw, layered trip with music and a stimulating 18+ dance movie. Composer, filmmaker and curator of De Vijf Ontmoetingen Merijn Bisschops made the multidisciplinary performance in response to the high-profile libertine novel De Vijf by A.H.J. Dautzenberg The music, played live by the Belgian guitar quartet Zwerm and drummer Karen Willems, drags you from microtonal doom to experimental punk to noisy indie rock. In the film, with a choreography by Tegest Pecht-Guido, everything revolves around the clash between male and female perspective: a world in which people are inextricably connected, but do not really make contact. The Five is an inestivable performance that shakes you up and doesn't just let go.
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