I think it says a lot about you, that when the question is about responsibility, the next topic that’s brought up is guilt. I find that interesting.
I thought you were talking about guilt? I was talking about duty.
I heard you say guilt.
I said guilt after you said guilt.
You did say guilt!
I said guilt, but I was not thinking about guilt.
Ok. Distinction made. You said it without thinking about it. That’s quite impressive.

Life in our modern Western world is permeated by violence, often so small that it is hardly noticeable. Microaggressions masked by politeness, scars from a violent past in public space, a tug-of-war to gain the upper hand in a conversation… It is a kind of violence that we experience and sometimes commit ourselves. The effect is subtle but it can accumulate and cause harm in the long term.

In the performance The Third Room, Christine De Smedt, Liza Baliasnaja and Theo Livesey explore what they call ‘low intensity violence’. Together, they shake up the rules of conversation. How can you use language as a means of imagination and dominance? In various made-up situations, the performers oscillate between the offender’s, the witness’ and the victim’s point of view, and pierce through the fictions of freedom and peaceful coexistence that form part of the Western social ideal.