Het Dromenpaleis is a theatrical installation and performance by the fantastic Zephyr Brüggen (who is also my sister), Han Ruiz Buhs and Niels Kuiters. For Het Dromenpaleis I did the scenography, or better said I created eight magical realities. I also did the graphic design. Het Dromenpaleis also has its own website: https://www.hetdromenpaleis.com/
ABOUT THE PROJECT
We usually think of our night-time dreams as personal and intimate figments of our imagination. But what if our dreams are also collective, and they can tell us something about the world we live in during the day? About our shared desires, beliefs and fears? Or about our vision of the future?
Journalist and writer Charlotte Beradt woke up repeatedly in Nazi Berlin between 1933 and 1938 from the most horrific nightmares in which she was being hunted, her name forgotten, or her house suddenly had no walls. One morning she woke up and thought: I can't be the only one having these kinds of dreams. She secretly asked around and it turned out that her fellow townspeople had similar dreams. After the war, Beradt compiled all these dreams in her book Das Dritte Reich des Traums (The Third Reich of Dreams): a spiritual reflection of the terror.
Part one: Dream workshops
Now, in Amsterdam in 2025, we are also compiling a collective dream diary of the city. Based on the conviction that 'the personal is political', we engage in conversation with various groups of people living in
Amsterdam about their dreams, and together we try to find common ground and coincidental similarities. We organise workshops and discussions in all districts of the city, based on the social dreaming discussion method. In this discussion method, it is not the dreamer but the dream that takes centre stage; in other words, it is not personal psychoanalysis but an associative search for shared images.
Part two: the theatrical installation
In the second part of this project, we are building a theatrical installation based on Baron van Slingelandt's miniature theatre. There are no actors in this installation, but we create sets from the dreams of the city. Our dreams pass by on a 2 by 2 metre stage. Everything is possible on a small scale: we can fly, fall and change, just like in our dreams. Nothing is what it seems: perspectives constantly shift, the narrative changes direction, monsters appear through the stage floor, trees can start dancing, and a shopping centre can suddenly transform into an ocean. Technical ingenuity and Dada-esque audacity come together, elevating the model to the status of subject matter.
I was involved in the second part of this artwork (perhaps the most enjoyable project I have ever worked on). Below, I will describe the decorative pieces I created for the theatrical installation: the forest, the city, the sea, the desert, the cave, orange-blue, the ruined city, and the starry sky.
THE FOREST
Oil pastel on cardboard, six panels measuring 135 x 37 cm and three friezes.
THE CITY
A digital animation of 23 drawings of buildings. I created the design and the analogue drawings, which Kiriko Mechanicus turned into a fluid digital animation in which the city slowly emerges.
THE SEA
An appliqué cloth embroidered with silver thread, on a hand-powered wooden machine that makes the cloth wave, which I designed and, together with Han Ruiz Buhs, assembled and got working.
THE DESERT
A yellow cloth on the same wooden machine, over which a bucket of eggs is thrown later in the performance. The projection of the eyes was again created by Kiriko Mechanicus. The scene ends with the naked wooden machine, revealing the mechanics of the dream.
THE CAVE
Two wooden panels with painted papier-mâché, smoke, light, and a fabric jellyfish.
ORANGE / BLUE
White-painted wooden panels with blue light that slowly catches fire and turns orange. This scene was a delightful collaboration between lighting designer Pablo Fontdevila and me.
THE DESTROYED CITY
White painted wooden panels, with charcoal drawings.
About us
We are a temporary gathering of theatre makers and artists. We believe in the power of collective imagination and wonder, and in connecting people through art. We believe these are essential elements in today's political reality, which can be surreal even during the day. In our work, we aim to involve the audience as participants and fellow artists, seeking connections between the tangible and the magical, between reality and fiction, between the personal and the collective.
Creators
Bambi Benkö (dream facilitator)
Eos Brüggen (scenography and graphic design)
Zephyr Brüggen (concept, artistic direction, and discussion leader)
Han Ruiz Buhrs (set design and artistic direction)
Pablo Fontdevila (lighting design)
Florian Hellwig (dramaturgy)
Niels Kuiters (artistic direction and discussion leader), Kiriko Mechanicus (video)
Pien Visser (PR/marketing)
Jorien Werkhoven (creative producer)