Rosa Tharrats

A 101-hour long reflection on the construction of Europe, its cultural identity and its foundations through the complete adaptation of the texts ‘Conversations with Goethe’ by J. P. Eckermann, ‘Hitler’s Table Talks’ and ‘Fassbinder über Fassbinder: Die ungekürzten Interviews’ (a compilation of interviews with the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which is used as a counterpoint to the first two books). The texts are read, page by page, by non-professional actors.

1774, shortly before the French Revolution, somewhere between Potsdam and Berlin. Madame de Dumeval, the Duke de Tesis and the Duke de Wand, libertines expelled from the puritanical court of Louis XVI, seek the support of the legendary Duc de Walchen, German seducer and freethinker, lonely in a country where hypocrisy and false virtue reign. Their mission is to export libertinage, a philosophy of enlightenment founded on the rejection of moral boundaries and authorities, but moreover to find a safe place to pursue their errant games, where the quest for pleasure no longer obeys laws other than those dictated by unfulfilled desires.

An archive preserves fragments of toppled statues. In a corner, a fan rocks the atmosphere. The air caresses the gestures of the workers. The hum of the engine and the long wait induce sleep: In a dream, military and civilians smile inertly. (Distant shots, whistles of bullets and explosions). In another dream, there are only stones, indifference and oblivion. (None of the above is real or true).

Casanova meets a new servant who will witness his last moments in life, from a castle with its libertine 18th century atmosphere to the poor, shadowy Northern lands. There, his rationalist way of thinking and mundane world will succumb to a violent and romantic force, represented by Count Dracula.

One spring day, amidst the incessant murmur of cars and birds, several neighbours meet on the banks of the Besòs - for years one of Europe's most polluted rivers - to share songs, dances and poems.