Philippe Quesne
Fantasmagoria
© Fantasmagoria, Philippe Quesne, © Martin Argyroglo ©
© Fantasmagoria, Philippe Quesne, © Martin Argyroglo ©
© Fantasmagoria, Philippe Quesne, © Martin Argyroglo ©
Design, staging, stage design by Philippe Quesne
Artistic collaboration, Élodie Dauguet
Music composed by Pierre Desprats
Lights, Nico de Rooij
Stage work collaboration, Éric Vautrin
Assistant, Fleur Bernet
Voice, Isabelle Prim, Èlg, Pierre Desprats
3D Animation, Bertran Suris, Philippe Granier
General manager, Marc Chevillon
Set design, Atelier du Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
Production, Elizabeth Gay
General stage management, Quentin Brichet
Accessories, Mathieu Dorsaz
Video, Mattias Schnyder
Sound, Ludovic Guglielmazzi, Charlotte Constant
Set, Fabio Gaggetta
Light, Jean-Baptiste Boutte, Farid Deghou
Sources of lyrics, Étienne-Gaspard Robertson, Mémoires récréatifs, scientifiques et anecdotiques du physicien-aéronaute E. G. Robertson, 1831 ; Allan Kardec, Le livre des
esprits, 1857; Laura Vasquez, Vous êtes de moins en moins réels, Points, 2022
Sources video, 3D Animation «Le vol du squelette» (Ph. Quesne, La démangeaison des ailes, 2003) ; Garden party, film de Ph. Quesne et C. Vayssié, 2012 (extrait)
Produced by Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne; Vivarium Studio
With support from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès as part of its New Settings program
Co-produced by (ongoing) Bonlieu Scène nationale (Annecy); Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris); La rose des vents, Scène nationale Lille Métropole
Villeneuve d’Ascq; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from PEPS – Interreg France-Suisse
Co-directed by Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris); Festival d’Automne à Paris
Philippe Quesne orchestrates an actor-less cabaret for lone pianos, set to music by Pierre Desprats. He brings us a theatrical attraction composed of fleeting appearances and magic lanterns, a workshop-world which is host to projections of all sorts.
The shadow of Roberton, the instigator of gloomy evenings made possible by ingenious optical devices, hangs over Fantasmagoria. It was he who promised, in the aftermath of the Terror, to bring the dead back to life and invoke ventriloquist-inhabited spirits. These encounters were in response to anxiety at the time, and were a forerunner to the overwhelming success of the spirit mediums, romanticised versions of hell, smooth-talkers and suggestive illusions of early cinema. By means of a dialogue with these two universes, Philippe Quesne presents us with a beguiling theatrical form peopled with phantoms, ghostly ancestors and clairvoyant poets. The music by Pierre Desprats brings to life a whole graveyard of mismatched mechanical pianos, celibate machines haunted by phosphorescent music set to the rhythm of macabre dances and incantatory wafts of smoke. The French director, who is used to breathing life into minority, possible other worlds, unveils a melancholic, theatrical, memory-based meta-world, a fairground-like ritual for exorcising fatality.
In the same place
Mathilde Monnier Territoires
In Territoires, Mathilde Monnier will be taking over the galleries of the Centre Pompidou during the course of a weekend in order to bring us a piece that deals with memory and circulation, "a collection of gestures from her work over the past thirty years". In doing so, the choreographer sets up the possibility of playing out memory in the present, from now onwards, or by means of anticipation.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Rétrospective
Apichatpong Weerasethakul presents the complete retrospective of his films at the Centre Pompidou. It consists of his eight feature films, thirty or so short (and rare) films, various collective works, and two feature films produced by him.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Night Particles
The Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul is guest at the Festival d'Automne and Centre Pompidou. His exhibition, featuring around ten video installations, transforms the former solarium into a nocturnal space inhabited by biographical and architectural reminiscences.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul A Conversation with the Sun (VR)
A Conversation with the Sun (VR), the Thai filmmaker's second foray into the realm of performance, uses virtual reality to set up the conditions for a collective dream.
Ligia Lewis Still Not Still
In Still Not Still, choreographer Ligia Lewis pursues her exploration into the silences and shadows of history. In this piece, the performers play out a score over and over again, the burlesque dimension of which makes it all the more tragic.
Forced Entertainment Signal to Noise
Over its forty years of existence, with Tim Etchells at the helm, the company has never stopped reinventing itself. And it continues to do so. Amidst an oscillating form of virtual reality, six performers find themselves deprived of their voices and their entire beings. The whole thing goes beyond all understanding... Welcome to this new world.
Sébastien Kheroufi Par les villages
Sébastien Kheroufi discovered Peter Handke's Par les villages at the onset of his artistic career. It evokes a writer's return to his native village. Amidst the twilight setting in which one universe declines in favour of another, the voices of the “offended and humiliated” break their silence.