Yours in Solidarity
Yours in Solidarity: 112 – Chris
Nicoline van Harskamp is bekend van haar performatieve tekstwerken, die inspelen op alle mogelijke hedendaagse communicatievormen, van politieke speeches tot groepsdiscussies. In de volgende dialoog met een acteur probeert invulling te geven aan het fictieve leven van Chris.
In haar doorlopende project Yours in Solidarity poogt Nicoline van Harskamp de levens te reconstrueren van de personen wier brieven voorkomen in het archief van de Nederlandse anarchist Karl Max Kreuger. Sinds zijn onverwachte overlijden in 1999 wordt Kreugers enorme brievencollectie bewaard in het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis in Amsterdam. Van Harskamp las en analyseerde het archief, en is bezig er een film over te maken. Aan acteurs van over de hele wereld legt ze briefpassages, handschriftanalyses en politieke informatie van een van de vierhonderd personen uit het archief voor, om zo een verhaal te construeren over zijn of haar leven sinds de laatste vermelding in het archief. Onderstaand zijn fragmenten afgedrukt van een werkbijeenkomst in Brussel, in december 2010. Van Harskamp en de acteur Eric Godon werken aan ‘persoon 112 – pseudoniem Chris’, een anarchistisch communist uit Antwerpen.
03’10”
So it’s been like a real journey in a few days in the history of anarchism. And actually now that I have read all this stuff you gave me and seen all the documentary films, I sense that the idea of anarchism has spread inside the society slowly over decades, but it has no longer the strength and the meaning that it used to have. It is not even considered as dangerous today. Not like what Emma Goldman would represent in the past. She was a real danger. She was arrested, banned, exiled…
True. But Emma Goldman today…
But a lot of things have changed since 1989.
You still get figures seen as dangerous, like Julian Assagne. But they don’t organise that much as in those times. And I think that’s the difference between anarchism now and…
But is it possible today to organise? Ideologies are dead since the wall fell.
But anarchism is not always just leftist.
No, I know. I am aware of that. But what I am concerned about, since Chris is a libertarian communist: can such a thing exist today?
Leftist anarchism? It has a different name perhaps. Perhaps you’d now call it the anti-vivisection or the anti-globalist movement.
Right.
It’s just a different term. And in that sense, when you mention ‘libertarian communism’…
Well, most people will never know it exists. Period.
22’ 32”
As far as his personality is concerned, you need to tell me what you want to see. And I’ll try to translate it into things I can work with. You gave me all this talk about his handwriting and so on, but it doesn’t help much.
It’s very general, I agree.
Like, the camera is going to be there and what do you want to see? I can’t show all these things in one interview.
No.
But, like the way he talks… Is it fast? Is it slow? Does he pose? Is he a bit nervous? Is he sedate? How does he feel inside?
I would imagine him to be a stubborn, slightly arrogant person.
Arrogant you can imagine? It means that probably the pace is going to be….
Slower. Yes.
To me I recon maybe faster. But then, you tell me faster or slower.
I would say slower.
26’ 30”
You haven’t the faintest idea what happened to him, actually?
I have no idea. No. I can only imagine what might have happened. And that’s why we’re doing things this way. I can’t think up four hundred stories.
But what have you been thinking up for Chris?
For Chris, I think he’s pretty much kept going as he was going. Just reading more.
Yeah, but that means that when there’s no progress, he’s receded. Generally speaking – and let’s not take into account his libertarian communism and his commitment to community activism – if he keeps doing and thinking the same stuff for twenty years, he’s not going forward. And if he’s not going forward, he’s going backwards. That’s how I see it.
Perhaps.
Does he have kids? Do we know that?
No, we don’t know.
He was only thirty in 1991, so maybe he has kids now, and his life has changed, and he is a totally different figure. But if we stick to the fact that nothing has changed, then something is dead inside of him. He is, like, in a pyramid. Surrounded and protected by his books and his thoughts and his idea of a better society.
Well…
Yeah, I’m not kidding!
No, no. Of course you’re not. But I think… I mean, there’s two ways to go. Looking at his handwriting profile…
Hmm.
… which we can also just throw away, like you said…
Well, when we read his profile, we can see that he has a lot of qualities.
There are very contradictive qualities, also.
Yes! But that’s often the case. I mean, he seems to be afraid of… Where was it? Ah! Looking bad. Crossing boundaries.
35’31”
Have a look at his actual handwriting.
Ooff. It’s…
Exactly.
Yeah, it’s.. To me, it’s…
It’s childish, a bit.
Yeah, it’s psycho-rigid and then it’s centred. And he writes like I did when I was ten and I was in school. He wants to comply with the rules and to a certain image. He doesn’t have that much personality, but he wants to show that he has a character and a will. The T is very long.
The crossbar, you mean?
He’s not very self-assured to me. And he’s got an erratic behaviour.
Neurotic?
Erratic. And he’s trying to take control all the time. And everything must be right, and he must justify every step he takes. And well, it does look immature.
Immature.
There is something that is not complete. I mean, I write like a doctor because there’s many things I’ve already given up in my life.
You should have a look at mine, then!
No, no, please don’t show me. Let’s not go there.
38’09”
Anyway, let’s not trust this report. Psychology doesn’t help much in this case. We just have to decide whether something evolved for him. Not only in his vision of anarchism and the way he can contribute to it. But also in his everyday life. Because these things are connected.
I think there’s two sides to him.
He still believes in things? He doesn’t believe in things?
It can go two ways. He writes that he ‘wants to have his comrades close to home’. He could be quite a social person.
To me, he needs other people. He’s not self-assured.
To me, the history is either that he succeeded to become part of a community. Maybe somebody who works as a local activist.
But then he hasn’t evolved at all.
He’s become some kind of a family or community person.
That’s what I’m saying! He’s not…
The other side is…
He’s not taking any steps at all.
And the other side is that he’s really lost himself in his books. In his theory. There are people who, the more unhappy they get, the more political they get. You know what I mean? Sometimes, the happier you are, the less bothered you are with the affairs of the world.
To me, he’s depressive. And he holds on to what he can. His ideas, his books, his social commitment. And when you take care of other people, you don’t need to think about yourself. But would that mean that he no longer believes in his ideas? Has he given up? Or not?
I don’t think he has. I think he’s still…
Okay, so then how does he continue his fight? And what’s the solution for him? And for the world?
I think he found a project. A political library or something.
For the community?
And he learns a lot, still. He’s a news junky. Reads everything. Political analyses. Most probably, he writes for some anarchist publication.
42’43”
I guess he could be a Paper Tiger, as we call it in Holland. Somebody who…
So he don’t scare nobody?
He is a paper activist.
Tigre de Papier. What’s the meaning for you? Because in French…
It means something else?
What does it mean to you?
He is a dangerous animal in paper, so…
He is not scaring anybody!
Maybe not. No.
So if he’s a Paper Tiger, then he still believes in the cause. That’s for sure.
Okay.
45’00”
Okay. So what do you think we should talk about? What are the questions for the interview?
Well, Chris is…
In Belgium, was he considered an important activist? What was his position?
The group that he set up was quite active in the early nineties. A lot of other writers refer to it. I think he was one of the..
The main…
…lead characters in the Flemish scene.
And so?
So I would ask you: can you tell me about that time? What were you doing? What were your politics?
How does Chris feel about this?
And his answer would be, I guess, that they are the same as the ones he has now.
How does he feel?
Right?
No, this is a question! How does he feel?
I think he feels that those were better times than today.
You know what? I need a cigarette.
Nicoline van Harskamp
