In Order of Disappearance

This immersive experience is in an exercise in isolation. Guided by a voice on headphones, you start walking, and slowly but surely you leave everything behind. From the outside world you walk into your inner world, socially isolated, with nobody else but yourself. Can we be alone? Or do we disappear into an endless vacuum?

Writer and theater maker Bart van de Woestijne has been developing In Order of Disappearance since 2018, but the work has gained a new urgency in 2020, the year of the lockdown. For many of us, both work and social life were suddenly confined to a screen, constantly confronting us with our own image distorted in the webcam. Isolation, in different senses of the word, came closer than ever. Who are we when no one is looking at us—when we only have our reflection?

Presented by IDFA DocLab and Over het IJ.