Miet Warlop fills Luxembourg stage with miles of silk to explore inner turmoil

Belgian theatre artist Miet Warlop recently staged Inhale Delirium Exhale at the Grand Theater of the City of Luxembourg, where over 2,100 yards of blue, white and gold silk cascaded from the ceiling and performers manipulated almost four miles of fabric onstage. The production uses wind machines, lighting rigs, six performers and four offstage technicians to keep the stitched-together swaths of silk in motion; cannons also launch weighted balls of fabric that unfurl midair to cover the stage.

Warlop said the show was an attempt to represent onstage the mental processes at work when people struggle to cope with personal anxieties or world events, adding that pressures sometimes “envelop us like the silk” while at other times “we take control of our worries.” Inhale Delirium Exhale has been touring Europe since May and still has dates scheduled in cities including Madrid, Porto and Nantes.

Key Topics

Culture, Miet Warlop, Luxembourg, Inhale Delirium Exhale, Hermès, Venice Biennale