Ana Pi
The Divine Cypher
© DR ©
Choreography, performance, research, and video creation by, Ana Pi
Lighting design, Jean-Marc Ségalen
Poem theme, TRVANIA
Original music and sound space design, Jideh HIGH ELEMENTS
Dialogues with Wendy Désert, Tara El, Ginite Popote, Jenny Mezile, and Gerda Boisguené
Outside philosophical eye, Profe. Dre. Maria Fernanda Novo
Outside semiotical eye, Profe. Dre. Cida Moura
Costume design, @remexefavelinha | Carla de Lá et Mili
This show is coproduced by La Briqueterie. It is presented in association with Festival d’Automne à Paris.
A production by NA MATA LAB (Paris)
Executive producer, Latitudes Prod. – Latitudes Contemporaines (Lille)
A coproduction by Institut de Recherche pour l’étude des Arts de l’Amérique Latine Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and MoMA (New-York) ; Terra Batida (Alkantara) ; Be My Guest – International network for the emerging practices ; and La Briqueterie – CDCN du Val-de-Marne (Vitry-sur-Seine)
The film is a coproduction with the participation of Soirées Nomades de la Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
In assoociation with La Briqueterie ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
With project support from Ministère de la Culture, DRAC Île-de-France
With support from Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Partnership with France Culture
Between the image and the body, the visual and the living, Ana Pi embarks upon a poetical-political examination into sacred ancestral gestures and their perpetuation in the present-day imagination. In Haiti, she established a fantastical dialogue with her contemporaries, and also with the experimental cinematographer Maya Deren.
The two women share a transversal, highly inquisitive, creative approach, which associates artistic process with a research methodology. From the 1940's onwards, Maya Deren, began studying, in an empirical way, Haitian culture, its dances and Voodoo heritage. She recorded her experiences in The Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti and the posthumous, eponymous, documentary film which came out in 1985.
Ana Pi, the recipient of a grant attributed by the MoMA in New York City and the Cisernos Institute, observes the manner in which the resonances of these sacred dances continue to be felt. What trace remains of them in our memory? What is the role of video-based technology in the “futurity” of these practices? How can this cypher, this ring dance of strange gestures, be enlarged? The Divine Cypher shifts between unpublished images, archives, fiction, spoken word and live dance solos, inspired by gestures filmed by Maya Deren, and her dreams. Added to this are those of her predecessor Katherine Dunham and transdisciplinary contemporary artists from Haiti.