Inter:view

All interviews are actually about the interviewers, you know that, right? Interviews are about the vanity of interviewers who think: with me, you do talk. I am the one to whom you let go, to whom you can show your true self. I am the one with whom you come to 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 own film, the other a lauded journalist who confronts her with questions, suspicions, and rumors. What starts as a friendly Q&A derails gradually into a game of proving oneself, tilting 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. Thus 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.