Lemon Juicer Merkel: Where the Real and the Fictional Europe Meet. Exploring Thomas Bellinck’s Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo

Abstract

By exploring Thomas Bellinck’s Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo, this paper seeks to demonstrate how Europe’s resort to its past is more than a desperate answer in the absence of a new narrative for the future of Europe. As I will show, this nostalgic reflex is part of a broader phenomenon that is both a response to and a symptom of a temporal crisis, emphasizing our inability to cope with the past and to imagine alternative futures. With Domo as an instrument, and with the insights of Andreas Huyssen, François Hartog and Svetlana Boym as a theoretical framework, I will explore how theatre practices can help to overcome our inability to deal with the recalcitrant past.