CTRL + C

'Ctrl+C' [Control C] is an intercontinental performance about the art of denial created by Julian Hetzel and produced by the Belgian city theatre NTGent.

I. BACKGROUND

Ctrl+C begins with a clear proposition: Studio Julian Hetzel commissions a Chinese artist to create a portrait of Europe—as a stage performance—made in China. What might such a portrait look like? How would it be produced? Ctrl+C pushes the logic of artistic creation to the edge of absurdity—where the absurd becomes political, and the political reveals its poetic charge.

We have grown accustomed to the outsourcing of war, of love, of care, of hate, of peace. Now it is time to outsource art—and with it, authenticity itself. What if authenticity could be artificially produced? And where, precisely, does the line run between artificial intelligence and artistic intelligence?

This deliberate act of outsourcing questions where originality ends and exposes the uneasy politics of authorship, labour, and cultural capital in a globalised creative economy. By staging a radical act of outsourcing, the work exposes the mechanics of cultural production: intellectual property regimes, the commodification of creativity, and the power structures that bind capitalism to authorship. At the same time, this gesture sheds light on the prejudices, stereotypes, and complexities embedded in this very idea.

For centuries, Europe has positioned itself as the Original: author of modernity, guardian of democracy, sole owner of moral authority. Yet behind this self-image of cultural superiority, a deepening insecurity emerges, rooted in the erosion of its global standing. Europe denies this reality. 

A golden past—part myth, part projection—is endlessly rehearsed and performed. Nostalgia hardens into obsession, tragically mistaken for a viable political strategy for the future. Is this denial mere ignorance, or rather a coping mechanism—an expression of grief in the face of its own decline?

Ctrl+C addresses Europe’s inability to keep pace with shifting geopolitical realities, and its resistance to confronting its own downfall—the slow exhaustion of a grand idea. Meanwhile, the spectre of old regimes re-emerges from the shadows.

II. STAGE CONCEPT

The performance begins with an introduction by the commissioned artist, who speaks about the project, explaining the conditions and the framework under which it came into being: the open call to which they responded, the expectations of the European company (Studio Julian Hetzel), the desire to portray Europe’s current condition, the cultural differences—and the tight budgets.

This opening sequence of Ctrl+C unfolds as a lecture performance in which the Chinese artist presents a diagnosis of a fading power in denial of reality—and what follows in the scenes to come is a distorted portrait of Europe.

In the next step, the audience gets to experience the full artistic vision on stage: a performance unfolds that combines documentary theatre with cinematic video sequences and cutting-edge robotics—programmed to evoke emotions. 

The piece is set in a laboratory for the preservation of species going extinct—a geriatric care facility, an absurd metaphor for the current state of the Western world. Here, a care worker looks after a small group of three elderly people. The elderly residents spend their last years in a protected environment where they receive palliative care with the aim of keeping them alive at all costs. They never touch the ground; they move exclusively on electric wheelchairs. The elderly communicate with the support of modern technology that allows them to interact with the caretaker and each other through video and speech-to-text models. Close-up videos of their faces on screens allow the audience to experience a hyper-realistic and voyeuristic view that produces both proximity and distance.

The caregiver who looks after the elderly is followed by a robot that observes and analyses his workflows and procedures, learning from his actions and routines in order to eventually replace him completely. It is a foreseeable displacement, and only a matter of time before machines take over his work. This precarious competition gradually becomes apparent and points to the future impact of new technologies in the healthcare industry. A shared sentiment of vulnerability and fear (of replacement) connects all elements.

The elderly residents emerge as archetypes of Europe—figures shaped by distinct and often conflicting worldviews, each rooted in deeply personal life stories. Over the course of the performance, the inhabitants of the care home reveal intimate, moving biographies that are inextricably linked to European politics and history. From the vantage point of memory, they speculate about the future. Some insist on a collective responsibility to remember the past—now and always—while others advocate moving forward, allowing history to resolve its own contradictions.

Within the hospice, a dense constellation of ideologies, beliefs, insecurities, and fears collides. What begins as conversation gradually escalates into a volatile microcosm, until the ground itself seems to tremble and the established order fractures before our eyes.

A: What do you think is Europe’s most sustainable resource?
B: The irrationality of the West. 
--- NY Times illustration

Ctrl+C unfolds as a dramaturgical matryoshka—a piece within a piece within a piece. Each layer reframes the one within it. Authorship is displaced, commentary interrupts representation, and Europe finds itself watching a version of itself constructed from the outside. The piece exposes cultural blind spots and invites audiences to confront the limits of their own perception. So what Europe ultimately receives from China may not be an objective diagnosis, but precisely what it commissioned—a reflection shaped by expectation, projection, and demand.