A Silent Place is a 'theatrical construction' in three acts, which, during the 1984 Holland Festival, was continually shown at various locations in Amsterdam. These locations were: under the arches of the Rijksmuseum, the ferry across the IJ, and a large shed on Bickerseiland. The tape of the same name contains a registration of not even five minutes of this performance. It includes a few of the many comically absurd scenes with which Harding confronted his audience. Elephants with wings, a chair being kicked over by a shop-window dummy cut in half lengthways, a sack of flour being emptied over an elephant, etc. Harding shows us an 'inexplicit but lucid world with an intuitive logic of its own. (…) at the same time, carrots/rabbits/elephants is an attempt to…disrupt the relatively complex organization and the conditioned patterns of expectation that are inherent to the theatre.' Read more...