Coming 30 august 2026
De Zoute Peel
An illegal beachcomber invites you into a curious future world in which the sea rolls through the Peel, all smartphones have drowned, and seagulls call the shots.
Julia we gaan zinken
Ik zag het in de krant
Ben weer aan ’t verdrinken
Mijn schedel staat in brand
~ The Nine Wives
Stories of a drowned land
A man with a raisin head silently sails over the salty underwater villages. From a mountain of waste, an illegal beachcomber mines raw materials for Plak, the black gold of the Peel Sea. What stories does she hold to tell? Which stories do we carry in our own blood like the salt of the Peel Sea?
"I can taste the salt in the air. It's all around me. In my hair, which is still dripping from the last dive. In the water that licks the church towers and rolls along the island. In the wood of the drowned juniper trees."
Each generation builds on the ruins of its predecessors
The world and the landscape are always changing, and so are the stories we pass on. Every generation builds a new story on the ruins of the old. We cannot move forward if we do not know on what ground we are building. My generation is building on a foundation of waste. Literally.
De Zoute Peel is a story and performance rooted in the Peellandscape where I was born. It unfolds from a former landfill that rises above the waves like an island. It tells of a future in which my birthplace has changed beyond recognition, and narrates how survivors shape their bond with the land.
The stories we read, hear, share, and tell shape us as human beings.
They are the lens through which we view, understand, and interpret the world around us. Every year, the Peelmuseum America and CEZP (Cultural Heritage Zwarte Plak) foundations organise a storytelling walk, in which stories from history and the future are shared through storytelling, dance, and music. De Zoute Peel is one of the three stories in the 2026 edition on August 30.
