Julian Hetzel

Welcome to Mount Average. During this performing journey, Julian Hetzel takes us on a factory visit that confronts us with our own ideologies. This time, the theatre maker grinds statues of rulers, dictators and tyrants to dust to give them meaningful new meaning. Mount Average questions acquired rights, traditions, privileges and wealth, ideologies and totalitarian ideas, aspects that every (post-colonial) society carries with it. In this industrial environment, the clash between the static past and the fluid present creates a productive friction that stirs up a lot of controversy. Julian Hetzel's performances are attempts to unravel the world, while trying to provide strategies to transform it. In his work, he provides speculative methods that offer possibilities to deal with both the trauma (of the past) as well as with the challenges of the present. This time, hands on. — Julian Hetzel


Julian Hetzel works as performance maker, musician and visual artist. He develops works along the intersection of theatre, music and media that have a political dimension and a documentary approach. He is artistic director of Studio Julian Hetzel, an Utrecht based organisation that realises and produces his artistic work. Hetzel’s creations are produced internationally. His work has been presented in more than 20 countries all around the world. In 2017 Hetzel received the VSCD-Mimeprijs for The Automated Sniper (by Frascati producties and ism & heit). In 2019 All Inclusive (by CAMPO and Ism & heit) was part of the official selection of the Nederlands Theaterfestival. SELF by Julian Hetzel was the national entry of the Netherlands at the Prague Quadrennial 2019. In August 2019 Hetzel presented three works at the Venice Biennale del Teatro. Julian Hetzel is associated artist at Kunstencentrum CAMPO Gent (BE). Since 2021 Studio Julian Hetzel receives structural funding from Fonds Podiumkunsten (FPK) and the City of Utrecht.