Series: Dat het was (interdisciplinary, 2025)

Dat het was is an interdisciplinary project about the limits of language in the aftermath of violence. The project consists of a text, performance, audio story and a series of analogue photographs.

The process behind this interdisciplinary project has been gradual, unfolding over many years with the involvement of many different hands and eyes.

In 2022, Herter began piecing together the composition of Dat het was from new and earlier materials, including text improvisations, journal entries, and fragments from his archive. Some passages date back to 2013. He started this recontextualisation as an attempt to deconstruct and rephrase the conventional trauma script to fit the actual experience of psychotrauma. The piece addresses the limits of language in the face of violence, trauma, dissociation and memory.

During the writing process of Dat het was, he took pictures in the Noorderpark, using two fully mechanical analogue cameras from the 1960s (both from the former Soviet Union): a Voskhod viewfinder with a fractured lens and a Zorki, Leica replica. These layered pictures now form a visual counterpart to the text.

Later, composer Boris De Klerk and performer Luca Bryssinck created a performance around the piece, merging sound, voice and text. The performance premiered at Frascati Amsterdam, and toured theatres in The Netherlands and Flandres. Working with sound engineer Camiel Muiser, the piece was produced and recorded as an audio work. This recording was produced as part of the research project Ander.

The audio story was published on literary platform Hard//Hoofd and imprint FIRMA GOTT published a digital publication of the text.

For the publication of the audio story, check: www.hardhoofd.com.
For the Dutch publication of the text, check: www.firmagott.com.

Lots of thanks goes to Birgit Boelens, curator at H’ART Museum and coach of this project, for her dedication and advice.

Credits

Text: Olivier Herter
Performance: Luca Bryssinck
Music and sound: Boris de Klerk
Mix and recording: Camiel Muiser

Artistic coach: Birgit Boelens
Thanks to: Czeslaw de Wijs, Vincent van den Bergh, Margijn Bosch, Alexander van der Weide, Rafael Cruz.

Partners: ‘t Barre Land, FIRMA GOTT, Hard//hoofd, Performing Arts Fund NL, Dutch Foundation for Literature, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.

Presentations

2026 Het Nationale Theater (NL)
2026 Kunstencentrum NONA (BE)
2025 Theater Kikker (NL)
2025 Hard//hoofd (NL)
2025 FIRMA GOTT (NL)
2025 Frascati (NL)
2023 Perdu (NL)

Dat het was - A interdisciplinary project about the limits of language in the aftermath of violence.

2025