De Navelberg
On a limestone plateau in southeastern Anatolia. On an ordinary morning in the mid-1980s, near Urfa, Turkey, an elderly farmer is ploughing his field when he comes across an unusual stone. Convinced that he has found something valuable, he loads the stone onto his cart and takes it to the local museum. The director dismisses him. It is limestone, nothing more. Disappointed, the farmer leaves his find in the museum garden. Six years later, Klaus Schmidt, a German archaeologist, walks through that same garden. His eyes light up: ‘This stone will rewrite history.’
And then the mountain opens up. Beneath the rustling grain, a map unfolds; veins branch out into streets, ribs rise into walls, and the beating heart of a city square emerges. Somewhere between mythical intuition and precise action, a gentle fever dream takes shape.
De Navelberg is a dance between humans, nature and archaeology. Not a reconstruction, but an invitation to discover the treasures hidden within the mountain. An unresolved question about the status of a monument and the people who created it, but never saw it completed. An ode to the human capacity for wonder — and for destruction.
De Navelberg is a visual and musical experience in which buildings shift, surfaces tilt and shadow transforms into drawing. A disorienting and enchanting descent into the mountain, through the pores of time.
Credits
- Production of Ali Can Ünal / KLUB KİLİM — Antigone
- Created with and performed by KLUB KİLİM - Ali Can Ünal, Joeri Happel, Inci Gül Civelekoglu, Aydın ‘Elektrokebab’ İşleyen
- Van en zonder Rozemarijn Van Kalmthout
- Final direction Haider Al Timimi
- Music Aydın İşleyen
- Scenography Ali Can Ünal
- Sound design Niels Vanherpe
- Light design Jonas Lambrigts
- Production Antigone
- Vooronderzoek Ali Can Ünal, Astrid Bonte
- Coproduction Perpodium
- Supported by de Vlaamse overheid, de Stad Kortrijk, de Tax Shelter van de Belgische federale overheid (via Cronos Invest)
- Dramaturgy Bart Capelle