From a private archive of recorded public debates, van Harskamp selected ten recordings that each have a critical moment or ‘plot’ in them. She compiled the script for the staging of Any other Business.

Uniquely structured as an ordinary conference, and set in a commercial convention centre, every single item on the program was scripted and staged. In three different rooms, thirty-five actors performed ten meetings over the course of six hours.

An intriguing narrative developed over the course of the afternoon, as the speakers increasingly struggled to suppress their urge to act rather than talk. A debate on public conduct ended up in a dog fight; an activist denounced nonviolent tactics; and when an unexpected event shook up the conference, the self-proclaimed ‘vanguard of the politically conscious class’ was unable to keep its calm or find words for what had happened. Together, they demonstrate the physical forces and desires at play in regular political debates, and subtly present impossibility of limiting politics to a rational process of verbal interaction.

From the (pre-) recordings of the conference, a multi-channel video installation is now being made.