:: Excerpts from a diary ::

Day 1
Arriving in Antwerp, I am struck by the central station, its structure and decorations. It is raining, but I decide to walk to WP Zimmer. Upon my arrival, Danae and Tim are there to welcome me. We immediately take a tour of the place together, and they show me the theatre spaces, the common areas, and my room. I instantly like everything—the spaces are spacious and welcoming. We then take some time to observe the residency space, thinking about how to organise it and how to schedule the sessions for the coming days. Afterward, Danae and I head out for dinner at a Korean restaurant. Korean cuisine is one of my absolute favourites. My feeling is that of a pleasantly disoriented body. I am here as a ghost.

A question keeps persisting in my head: What does it mean to be or act as someone’s ghost? Where does one learn to be a ghost?
I feel in the dark. I think, “ghosts move in the dark.” Maybe.
And more questions: Does it manifest independently? Or is its presence variable in relation to the other, depending on the willingness to be put at the centre?
I decide to proceed by intuition. My ghostly being takes on an interrogative, curious presence. Danae’s artistic process fascinates me and speaks to me. It concerns me.

Day 2
The next day, I have breakfast with Danae and Dusica at a beautiful café very close to WP Zimmer, before starting the residency as a ghost in Danae’s work entitled THE PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY: EXPERIMENTATIONS OF THE PUBLIC BODY. Danae and I enter the room. We talk and confront each other. I like staying in the position of the listener, learning to create a space of silence in order to listen to the other person and the intuitions that arise. In my head, several connections begin to form between her research on the practice of democracy and my own choreographic research. It feels as though, on both sides, there is an attempt to bring out a kind of collective consciousness that mediates relationships and distributes bodies in space.
Danae arrives in the room with all the script sheets for the next day’s assembly, still to be rearranged. We divide the scripts and sort them very carefully by numbered pages and roles. This organising and piecing together becomes a good practice for beginning to understand her work. During this moment, many questions arise for me, and a curiosity to see how this script, which will later be handed to the participants, will succeed in building a dense network of relationships as an attempt to practice democracy together.

Day 3
Once each script is assembled, we place it in a designated folder. We organise the space and arrange the seating to welcome the participants to the event AN ATTEMPT TO DEVICE A DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLY. We arrange all the scripts on the chairs, ready and waiting for the guests.
Besides being here as a ghost, I find myself among a group of unfamiliar faces, as though I were one of them, invited to participate in the assembly. There are about 15 participants from different nationalities. It’s beautiful, I think—we should do this once a month. I feel like a “ghost” as I am somehow blended into the group. I leave the experience with an energised and refreshed mind. The feeling of having supported something larger than myself through the performance of a role, while at the same time clarifying something within me. This brings me closer to the public space, takes me outside of myself, and together, we break down the self-defences that we tend to activate in confrontation with others.

Day 4
Move with a peripheral view,
Waiting,
In the silence of the body,
Some thought stopped between the temples,
Like a noise,
Outside,
Where one does not know,
In some moments, it happens that one can connect huge distances in a flash,
Swap places, exchange lives, exchange words.
Negotiation is a place to get to,
From which to depart,
To be the ghost of a house in which one has never lived,
And yet recognise some of its details.

I understand, afterwards, through talks and meetings with assembly participants, in moments of pause or feedback with Danae, during walks in the city, at dinners, in silences, and in waiting, that being a ghost is, for me, first of all, to be a silent but also a curious presence—a presence charged with questions that sometimes become explicit. To become a soft point of observation, a sustaining presence. To accompany, to stay by the side. Being close enough when needed. Opening new questions and not providing answers. Experiencing the willingness to listen.