Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

Ant Hampton’s ‘The Quiet Volume’ is a whispering performance for two which unfolds in the reading room of the Boekentoren. You and your partner take place at a table in the library with a stack of the books. Taking cues from words both written and whispered you find yourself burrowing an unlikely path through a pile of books. The piece exposes the strange magic at the heart of the reading experience, allowing aspects of it we think of as deeply internal to lean out into the surrounding space, and to leak from one reader’s sphere into another’s.

Hampton made ‘The Quiet Volume’ together with stage director, writer and occasional performer Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment). It’s a small, intimate experience, as you’re surrounded by students and reading visitors. After performances at Buenos Aires and Berlin, ‘The Quiet Volume’ will come to Ghent!