Het verhaal van Eric de Volder in Turkije: Over vriendschap, een school, en het tasten in de schemer van de interculturaliteit

Abstract

This article tells the story of the friendship between the late Belgian theatre director and author, Eric De Volder, and Turkey, more specifically, the fishing village Karaburun, the most nordic point on the peninsula in the İzmir province, and one of the most western points of Anatolia, on the coastline of the Aegean Sea. The story is based on anecdotes and archival materials, and has at least three protagonists: that of his wife, photographer and visual artist, Tania Desmet; his friend, director, cofounder of Theater RAST in Amsterdam, and translator of three of his plays, Şaban Ol; and Karaburun itself, which delivers the setting and the mise-en-scène in which their encounters were perhaps less coincidental than that the protagonists could ever imagine. Eric De Volder's story in Karaburun is focused around themes of authenticity, intercultural contact, work process, and social history. The article ends with a short reflection on the politics of friendship (Derrida 1994) through Eric De Volder's work and the time he spent in Turkey.