Debate Barzakh: Belgian Detention System

Last season, Barzakh premiered at Opera Ghent — a production by director Thomas Bellinck and composer Osama Abdulrasol, created together with people living inside Belgian detention houses. Based on their testimonies, a new opera emerged that casts the detention system in a critical light.

Barzakh explores how we, as a society, deal with punishment, guilt, and reintegration. It also draws on the operatic repertoire and the history of our house to reflect on how criminality is represented on stage.

In December, Barzakh returns to Opera Antwerp. The constant stream of troubling news about detention in Belgium makes one thing clear: more than a year after its premiere, little has changed.

At the end of the performance, a question lingers: “Wie können wir das ändern, dass sowas nicht nochmal passiert?” How can we change the system so that people who have committed a crime can once again be part of society — and not repeat the same mistakes?

On Wednesday 3 December, we will host a debate on detention.

Journalist Heleen Debeuckelaere (De Standaard) will be joined by:

• Nick De Ridder (former inmate, active in youth care)
• Brecht Verbrugghe (prison doctor)
• Farah Focquaert (professor at Ghent University)
• Noa Shoshan (RESCALED – European network for small-scale detention)
• Mathilde Steenbergen (Director-General of the Belgian Prison System)
• Hans De Waele, presiding judge of the Court of First Instance of East Flanders, Ghent division