To tie in with the De welwillenden production, on March 4th 2016 Toneelhuis published the Test of Civilisation, long-read in several languages. The digital publication takes as its starting point the historical context in which Jonathan Littell’s book (The Kindly Ones) is set. Two of its recurrent themes are the perpetrator’s perspective and the effect of language. Within the context of the production, an intensive, external participative project was also developed entitled Invisible Cities. Final-year students of journalism from the Artesis Plantijn University College in Antwerp produced balanced portraits of people living in Antwerp who are excluded in some way.
On January 26th 2016 a long-read was published about the work of Abke Haring and on December 18th 2015 a digital publication about the work of Guy Cassiers appeared.
Test of Civilisation has been watched 13,120 times by 1,718 people. Invisible Cities has been watched 6,139 times by 1,366 users. We were particularly pleased to find that people are prepared to take the time to read: the average duration of a Test of Civilisation session is 6 minutes, 26 seconds; Invisible Cities sustains readers’ attention for an average of 4 minutes, which is a very long time for reading on the internet.