Xxijra Hii presents: Encountering Atlantis | Performance Lecture - Saturday

Bettina Hutschek

Encountering Atlantis (Performance Lecture)

November 7-8th 2025

A wondrous island empire mentioned by philosopher Plato, a ritual expert only out for sexual contact; a dubious government whose members presumably silenced a journalist with a car bomb. Bettina Hutschek takes the ancient myth of Atlantis and today’s island-state of Malta as thought laboratories for her quest to understand the use and abuse of stories. Her research and film project “Encountering Atlantis” is guided by a question: What do we know for sure, what do we choose to believe, and where to draw the line between believing and knowing?

In her performance lecture, Bettina Hutschek takes the story of her forthcoming film - to be completed in 2026 - as a red thread to navigate a world of ancient and contemporary utopias. Using stick figures, objects, images, videos and spoken word performance, she weaves together belief systems, myths, and politics into a kaleidoscopic journey across time and imagination. Balancing on the tightrope between science and pseudo-science, Hutschek probes the fragile boundaries between knowing and believing.