De blauw, Lara Staal / NTGent

'De blauw' is a musical site-specific performance about the police, based on interviews with police officers, criminologists, youth workers and young people from Ghent. Whenever something ‘goes wrong’, the police are called in. Police training in Belgium only takes one year, but once they start work, the police encounter extremely complex situations. How does a police officer actually decide what is ‘suspicious’ and what isn’t? As a society, how do you make sure the most vulnerable people are not constantly targeted and arrested? And can the police really be there for everyone? De blauw, a creation by Serdi Faki Alici, Armin Mola, Joram Kunde Boumkwo and Lara Staal, will be shown outdoors in neighbourhoods all over Flanders. A converted police van forms the scenery, which can be opened up in places such as playgrounds, parks, homes for young people and so-called ‘trouble spots’. De blauw analyses how the police operate today and creates a many-voiced, many-layered portrait of a society in crisis, where we want as few rules as possible, but the safety debate is more strident than ever. ‘More officers on the beat!’ is what we hear from all sides, but is that really what we want? And who will be the first victims if that happens?