Lion's Court Lion’s Court is a film—a short opera—in which the Dutch parliamentary buildings, the Binnenhof, function as a virtual stage, infused with history and myth. Inspired by the discovery of 14th-century lion bones and the historical symbolism of stranded whales as omens, we created a digital Hortus Conclusus: a fluid, enclosed world where power, morality, and prophecy collide. At the center stands the lion Faust, a despot in search of a freedom that consumes itself—drawn from the vision of redemption in Goethe’s Faust, in which land is reclaimed from the sea. Here, Faust struggles with the question of how power and prosperity relate to morality, only to be ultimately swallowed by the rising waters, carried by a whale—the personification of Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt—singing the foundations of freedom and equality.
In collaboration with composer and political scientist Bram Kortekaas, a Faustian dilemma unfolds: how far may one go to realise one’s ideals—and at the cost of whom, and what— on the Binnenhof as a mirage, as a stage of power and illusion.
https://vimeo.com/1063292252?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci