....... they check our tickets. Our complimentary VIP lounge tickets. There, in the VIP lounge, is the bulgari sponsor's stand.
GERARDJAN
jesus, you and that bulgari stand …
GILLIS
me and the bulgari stand. I thought it was perhaps the most beautiful stand at the entire fair .......


A play by Willem de Wolf about the art market and the irrepressible passions of an art collector. With Gerardjan Rijnders and Gillis Biesheuvel.

The photos of beautiful, pale boys hide a world without hope. The art world is all about money and lechery. A collector of contemporary photography (Gerardjan Rijnders) travels with a younger friend (Gillis Biesheuvel) to the Kunstmesse in Basel. But the focus soon shifts to an outdoor café, where the art collector waits in vain for his date, the young, dark-skinned waiter Allurie whom he met the previous evening. A provocative conversation between the two friends descends into a desperate litany on beauty and morality. In their imagination they travel from the cultural centre of Basel to the dreary suburbs, Allurie's illegal world where every detail could produce a photo for the Kunstmesse.

Together with Ton Kas, Willem de Wolf was for more than twenty years a member of the renowned theatre company Kas & De Wolf. Since 2005, he has performed as guest actor with mugmetdegoudentand theatre company in the Netherlands and is a member of the artistic team at De Koe theatre company in Belgium. BAZEL is his first full-length play.

made by Gillis Biesheuvel, Matthias de Koning, René Rood, Maarten de Rooij, Gerardjan Rijnders, Willem de Wolf
text Willem de Wolf
publicity and education Raymond Querido
manager Marten Oosthoek

extract from BAZEL


so you were talking about the david beckham video, you and maureen paley, do you remember? it wasn't at the fair at all, the video, but it was all abuzz: 'who's got the david beckham video?' david beckham? playing football? no, sleeping. david beckham's sleeping. where? in the video. he sleeps for hours. the video last hours. but what it was all about - you hadn't seen it, but there were those who'd had to watch the entire thing. probably the same ones who are usually so quick to find something boring. usually you're very quick to find everything boring - but in this case, what it was all about to you was; after a few hours, david beckham turns over. can it be true? in his sleep. in the video. after three hours 39 minutes, and david beckham turns over and the sheet falls from his shoulder. that's all. that was it. the sheet falls from david beckham's shoulder. nothing more. we'd already had brad pitt in an apron, an eminem in water paint, too, and to round it off david beckham on video and clint eastwood in tears. film stars, pop singers and footballers, all of them buckling under to mass culture. at a certain point i heard maureen paley's ingenious comment - they were always ready with an astute remark there - that it says so much about the superficiality of our times. not. it is the superficiality of our times. something should be said about it. and hopefully for her, maureen paley, not during this fair.

…

is everything staged, actually


GERARDJAN
What?


GILLIS
all the photos at the fair, are they all staged?