DE HOE // Inter:view

All interviews are actually about the interviewers, you know that, right? Interviews are about the vanity of interviewers who think: you do talk to me. I am the one with whom you let go, with whom you can show your true self. I am the one with whom you reach insights you didn't even know you had. Two women stand on stage. One is a celebrated actress who is about to make her first film, the other a lauded journalist who confronts her with questions, suspicions, and rumors. What begins as a pleasant Q&A gradually derails into a game of need for proof, shifting power dynamics, and fanatical attempts at unmasking. Despite all the revelations, it remains the question of how well we really get to know them. Does it remain that endless attempt to say something that wants to be true, honest, or complete, but never is? How do you elicit what you are after? What do you say to answer what is asked of you? And who are you when the other determines your words? In the heyday of clickbait, Natali Broods and Katelijne Damen venture with feigned openness into the art of the in-depth interview to honor, question, and parody it. In this way, they show what it essentially is: not a reciprocal exchange, but a form of self-sculpture and control, a thin layer of varnish over a chaotic life.