When we look up to the stars in the sky, people are small and insignificant. This will not do! And so we elevate ourselves to stardom.
We have speeches, raise podiums. We pad each other on the back and honour one
another with awards. We appoint ourselves as champions. We hand out decorations, medals, victory cups. We build prize cabinets reaching all the way up to the ceiling, under the motto ‘The sky is the limit’.
And yet…. And yet we are and remain but tiny creatures in an overwhelming universe.
Each prize is a consolation prize.
Humour and a sense of perspective make the Consolation Prize an ode to the Human Dimension. The smallest person ever measured 54 centimetres, the tallest human being 2,72 meters. But seen from the moon, we won’t be able to tell the difference. Far away from stars and planets, we celebrate the limited shelf life of eternal glory with piano, vocals and dance.
the Consolation Prize in the media
“the Consolation Prize is about the madness to turn everything in life into a competition. Thanks to its subtle layering the performance admirably balances astringency and nimbleness.” ****– Francine van der Wiel - NRC
