Jérôme Bel
Jérôme Bel
© © Herman Sorgeloos ©
Concept, Jérôme Bel
With Eric Affergan, Claire Haenni, Patrick Harlay, Gisèle Pelozuelo (La Commune centre dramatique national d'Aubervilliers) and Michèle Bargues (at Musée du Louvre and at the Ménagerie de Verre), and Frédéric Seguette
A production by R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris) // In collaboration with La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris) ; Festival d’Automne à Paris (for performances from 18 to 22 November) ; Musée du Louvre and Fiac (for performance 24 October) // With thanks to D.C.A. and La Ménagerie de Verre
The piece was first presented on 1 September 1995 at Festival Bellone-Brigittines (Bruxelles)
In 1995, the choreographer Jérôme Bel put his name to Jérôme Bel, a radically pared-down work bringing the author one step closer to the hallmarks of his work, and dance to its enabling factors: lighting, music and the body. Eighteen years on, the same observation rings true: “a body cannot be overlooked”. With this “given that” as his starting point, Jérôme Bel sought to find out more. He wanted to pick up on the exchanges, and fluids running though the body. For want of making the body dance, he maps it out: what are its dates, what are its measurements, and what are the signifiers that orientate it? And what stage language can bring home its literal presence? With an economy of means reduced to what language has to say, he serves up a deconstruction of theatrical representation which has lost nothing of its vital impact. With a shift of focus, we then turn from Jérôme Bel to Cédric Andrieux, and hence from the show’s constituent parts, to the work of the dancer. After Véronique Doisneau, a solo for the Ballet de l’Opéra à Paris dancer of the same name, the trajectory of Cédric Andrieux’s comes under the spotlight. Trained in contemporary dance, and a dancer for Merce Cunningham and for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, his experience constitutes a mini-history of dance through its various ebbs and flows, and fault-lines. Alternating sections of dance with spoken passages, allowing us to gauge the gap between words and movements, Cédric Andrieux sets forth the relationship of a body with different codes, gestures and approaches. In doing so, he confronts a history of practices and approaches with a secondary thread: a social and cultural subject, and how a unique, moving body invents itself through dance. The result is a multi-layered choreographic experience, forming an unbroken horizon in which audience, dancer and choreographer alike free themselves of their set places.
In the same place
Carte Blanche Dream City
The multi-disciplinary Tunisian festival Dream City is moving to Aubervilliers at the joint invitation of the Festival d'Automne and La Commune, with the shared desire to make this area rustle, resonate and dream through a dozen creations by international performing and visual artists.
Selma & Sofiane Ouissi BIRD
Starting with ordinary everyday gestures such as feeding, living together and getting around, Sofiane Ouissi explores our relationship with birds. Passionate about encounters and the journeys they generate, this time he delves into the relationship with another species.
Visual arts: exhibitions and conversations
Artists Jumana Manna and Sille Storihle, Manthia Diawara, Michael Rakowitz & Robert Chase Heishmans will be in La Commune from 20 to 28 September to present five works and invite you to take part in two conversations.
The works of Nil Yalter will be on display in the public space of Aubervilliers.
Conference by Sophie Bessis Tunisia in the turmoil of populism
After a decade of chaotic but richly experienced democratic apprenticeship, Tunisia found itself plunged into a new cycle of its post-colonial history from 2021 onwards. From that date onwards, Kaïs Saïed, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed all the powers, transforming a fledgling democracy into an autocracy.
Sammy Baloji Missa Utica
The first black bishop appointed by the Catholic Church should have settled in Utica, Tunisia, but never did. His story is the starting point for Sammy Baloji's work.
Winter Family H2-Hébron
Winter Family is an experimental music and documentary theatre duo founded by Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and French musician Xavier Klaine. They play minimal, obsessive, abrasive and political music. They created H2 Hebron, their 3rd show in 2018, a documentary piece in which the transcription of nearly 500 pages of testimonies, their translation, selection and reappropriation by Winter Family are the central element and the main dramaturgical material of the show.
Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué Biokhraphia
These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia et Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.
Rabih Mroué Riding on a cloud
These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia and Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.