The more you know, the more fragile things seem to be.

“We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean.” That’s the now cliché, but still very true line you’ll hear in almost every documentary about the vast blue sea, and all the mystery that lies beneath it.

But in ending off their Mining Trilogy docu-theatre series, Belgian theatremakers Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere turn that mystery into something beautiful and almost sacred, as they present the ongoing debate over the future of the planet. While they started with the present with an immediate disaster in Mining Stories, and delved into the history of Nauru in Pleasant Island, the duo now turn towards the unknown, with an exploration of deep sea mining in Out of the Blue.

This time around, Silke and Hannes have chosen laptops as their choice of medium, seated at a ‘control panel’ of a desk, using eight screens to project video footage and audio interviews collected from conversations with the crew of three ships out on a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean in 2021.

Each of these ships represented a different viewpoint of the public debate over whether deep sea mining should become a full-fledged industry. The first, Belgian dredging company DEME-GSR, was conducting controlled deep sea mining with a robot scraping the seabed in search of metals. The second contained an international team of marine biologists and geologists, making scientific observations and collecting data from the operation. And the third ship was the infamous Rainbow Warrior, where Greenpeace activists were protesting against this potentially harmful future industry.

Unlike the previous two parts, due to its subject matter still in its infancy, Out of the Blue ends up far less narrative, and much more philosophical and speculative in its storytelling approach. Silke and Hannes afford each of the three ships their time in the spotlight, each one sharing their thoughts on whether deep sea mining should be fully legalised and implemented or not, each with reasons and logic behind their stand. While DEME-GSR is somewhat villainized, with footage of massive, bug-like creatures slurping up metals along the ground while dark pollutants spew into the sea, this is begrudgingly balanced by recognising the need for such metals, found in such abundance on the ocean floor, to power our electric vehicles and solar panels.

On the other hand, GreenPeace’s emotionally-driven argument is backed by a devastating Aardman Animation campaign that appeals to the heart, but lacks scientific fact and logic to fully back it up, especially with the metals’ potential to meet our goals of slowing climate change. Amidst the three arguments, the passive observers in the ship full of scientists are oddly, the most convincing, and perhaps seem to represent the average viewer best. While we are not directly involved in the mining industry, there is something about their interviewees’ words that strike a chord, as they consider the vast amount of data still missing to make a reasonable decision. In short, the issue is complex and at a stalemate, where it becomes impossible to proceed knowing that the planet will receive some kind of harm either way.

In terms of its execution, as always, Silke and Hannes adopt a live form of documentary creation as their unique medium, their desktop at the ready, folders open and prepped before systematically choosing from a list of carefully indexed and titled files to present to us. Resembling operators at a ship’s bridge, where they are strongest is when they juxtapose unexpected media together, from Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes’ while showcasing paintings of ‘romances at sea’, to massive visual representations of data trees against ambient oceanic music, allowing us to imagine just how little we know about what we’re attempting to mine.

Perhaps one of the most powerful moments is when we are presented with a visual that compares the size of various objects in the galaxy, starting from Earth’s Moon all the way to red supergiants. It is this unexpected moment that not only hints even further into the future at space mining, but also reminds us of just how small we are in the grand scheme of things, and wonder how much our actions truly matter.

Because of how vast the field of potential knowledge could go, Out of the Blue finds itself stretched thin rather than really plumbing the depths of the issue at hand, often trying to give equal opportunity for each of the three ships to present their views. As we sit in limbo, pondering over whether such a new industry will ever receive the go-ahead, we are presented with footage of fascinating deep sea creatures with alien-like compositions and forms, no narrative, only silent videos. There is a fragility to such mysterious figures, and we remain transfixed by their beauty.

If anything, it serves to make clear that as little as we know, we are keenly aware that there is life under the sea, and without enough checks or policies in place, we cannot possibly ensure that we prevent the possible damage and destruction deep sea mining might cause to the biodiversity of the ocean or the health of the planet. As we’ve seen from the other parts of the Mining Trilogy, humans tend to realise their mistakes only when it is too late. For the deep sea mining industry at least, there is still time to ensure that it does not also become a casualty of our desire for constant progress and expansion, and one can only hope we make the right decisions moving forward.

Photo credit: Loes Geuens

Mining Stories ran from 28th to 29th July, Pleasant Island from 2nd to 3rd August, and Out of the Blue from 5th to 6th August, all at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.

The Studios 2023 runs from July to September 2023 at the Esplanade. Full programme and tickets available here

Production Credits:

By & With Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere Dramaturgy Dries Douibi Sound Mix Lieven Dousselaere Outside Eye Pol Heyvaert Technique korneel Coessens, Piet Depoortere, Koen Goossens & Babette Poncelet Production CAMPO Co-Production Bunker (Ljubljana), De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam), Noorderzon – Festival Of Performing Arts And Society (Groningen), Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zürich), Beursschouwburg & Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Théâtre De La Ville (Paris) & Festival d’Automne À Paris (Paris) Residencies Kunstenwerkplaats, Pilar, Bara142 (Toestand), De Grote Post, 30CC, GC De Markten & GC Felix Sohie Special Thanks to John Childs, Henko De Stigter, Patricia Esquete, Iason-Zois Gazis, Jolien Goossens, Matthias Haeckel, An Lambrechts, Ted Nordhaus, Maureen Penjueli, Surabhi Ranganathan, Duygu Sevilgen, Joey Tau, Saskia Van Aalst, Kris Van Nijen, Vincent Van Quickenborne & Annemiek Vink Thanks to All Conversation Partners & The People Who Helped With The Transcriptions