Four paths, one city: Heerlen sends its history across the sky

Tonight in Heerlen, it is worth looking up.

People are moving through the Dutch city from four different directions. One group is green, one red, one blue and one orange. Giant creatures float above their heads: a tortoise, a dragon and enormous lizards. All four paths lead to the same place.

This is how the 35th edition of “Cultura Nova” begins on 28 August – not on a stage behind closed doors, but in the middle of Heerlen. The French street-theatre company Plasticiens Volants has created a special opening production for the city: “From Black to Rainbow”.

Four colours, four creatures

At 7.30 pm, the four parades set off.

From one starting point comes Adnoa, a giant tortoise that symbolically carries the world on her back. Another parade is accompanied by the dragon Hippo-guanodon, a strange creature that is half animal and half plant. Then there is the giant lizard Ouarane.

And from behind Theater Heerlen comes Saurien, formerly known as “Godzilla” and now a piece of Cultura Nova history in its own right.

The creatures are not simply ready-made festival decorations floating above the streets. Their patterns were designed and painted together with residents of Heerlen-Noord and Heerlen-Zuid.

Each of these enormous companions therefore carries something of the city itself.

The audience can become part of the picture too. Anyone joining a route is invited to wear its colour.

For one evening, Heerlen really does move towards itself in four colours.

When a child emerges from the dust

But the four parades are only the beginning.

As darkness falls and the figures meet at the Maankwartier, the story changes.

From a spiral-shaped mound of dust emerges a child named YUNI.

YUNI represents what has been moving towards one another along different streets: the connection between north and south, past and future, memory and transformation.

And with this child, colour gradually returns.

What at first appears dark and almost lifeless begins to change. The chimneys, the figures and finally even the sky become part of the performance.

It sounds like a fairy tale.

But the story behind it genuinely belongs to Heerlen.

Two chimneys that no longer stand

Fifty years ago, two structures that had long shaped the city's skyline disappeared: the enormous mining chimneys Lange Jan and Lange Lies.

Heerlen and the whole South Limburg region were closely connected to mining. When it ended, more than jobs and industrial buildings disappeared. A city also had to consider what could come after that past.

Cultura Nova brings that memory back today.

The two chimneys appear in the performance as signs of the city's industrial history. But “From Black to Rainbow” does not remain in the past. YUNI is intended to connect it to a city that has changed and continues to change.

Black becomes colour.

Different paths become one shared place.

And from the memory of what disappeared comes the question of what might come next.

The sky becomes a stage

To tell this story, Heerlen has invited artists who have little need for an ordinary theatre stage.

The French company Plasticiens Volants works with enormous inflatable figures that float above streets and squares. For decades, the ensemble has transformed public spaces into theatre.

The sky itself becomes their stage.

That has another advantage: their stories barely need a shared language. A giant tortoise floating above a crowd does not have to be translated first.

Children may simply see an enormous fantasy creature.

Others may recognise a symbol.

And anyone who knows Heerlen's history will also discover two old chimneys among the figures.

Everyone can watch the same performance and still find something different in it.

Ten days of culture begin in the street

This evening launches a festival that will fill the entire Parkstad region with culture for the next ten days.

Cultura Nova presents visual and physical theatre, circus and installations, dance, music, film, architecture and visual arts. International companies appear alongside artists from the region.

Perhaps the opening explains particularly well what the festival is about.

Four groups can come from different directions.

They do not have to wear the same colour.

They do not even have to bring the same story.

And yet their paths can eventually meet.

Tonight Heerlen does not need a long speech to explain that.

It simply sends four enormous creatures across the sky.

And waits for a child to emerge from the dust.