Gisele Vienne’s works mix abstract, figurative and narrative writing. In The Pyre she wants to examine the relation between language and dance, presenting a show in which the abstract literally reflects the need of the characters to escape from reality. Music composed by KTL (Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg - affiliated with the cult record company Editions Mego, for years the mainstay of Vienna experimental electronic stage) and performed live adds intensity to the space, light - a sense of depth, shaping the space in which the characters function. The show appears as a music and light composition in which the characters’ presence varies between corporeality and lack of corporeal character. Choreography, light and music make time in the show fly in front of our eyes. Movement, which simultaneously presents body transfigurations and analyses the tension between them, disturbs everything that is depicted and the character’s reality itself, imparting to it a mythical character.
The show is a Malta Festival Poznań coproduction, part of the House on Fire network.
With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union
GISÈLE VIENNE is a French and Austrian choreographer, director and visual artist, considered one the most original and unpredictable European directors of the young generation. She studied philosophy and afterwards puppetry in Ecole Superieure des Arts des Marionnettes. Her works combine theatre, dance and visual arts, investigating the boundaries between the true and imaginary, reality and illusion, life and death. The artist also makes photographs and installations which she displayed for instance during La Force de l’Art in Grand Palais in Paris (2006), in Centre Atlantique de la Photographie in Brest (2007) and at an exhibition Stay with Art in Osaka (2007) and the Aichi Art Trienal in Nagoya in Japan (2010). Since 2004, she has been cooperating with an American writer, poet and critic, Denis Cooper, considered “the most dangerous American writer”. During Malta Festival Poznan 2010 (Idiom: Excluded) she presented her shows Jerk and I Apologize.
conception, direction, choreography, scenography: Gisèle Vienne
text: Dennis Cooper
music, live performance, diffusion: KTL (Stephen OʼMalley , Peter Rehberg)
performed by, created in collaboration with, Anja Röttgerkamp / Anne Mousselet, Léon Rubbens / Lounès Pezet
lights: Patrick Riou
costumes: Jose Enrique Ona Selfa
video: Robin KobrynskiExecutive producer: DACM
Co-producers (provisional): Opéra de Lille (FR) / Le Parvis, Scène National de Tarbes (FR) / Centre Pompidou, Les Spectacles Vivants - Paris (FR) / IRCAM – Paris (FR) / Comédie de Caen, Centre Dramatique National de Normandie (FR) / Festival Automne en Normandie (FR) / Scène nationale d’Evreux (FR) / Coproduction Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy et La Bâtie - Festival de Genève in the frame of PACT beneficiary from FEDER with the programme INTERREG IV A France-Suisse / Centre de Développement Chorégraphique - Toulouse (FR) / Centre Dramatique National Orléans Loiret Centre (FR) / Le Maillon, théâtre de Strasbourg, Scène européenne / Pôle Sud, scène conventionnée pour la danse à Strasbourg / Malta Festival Poznan 2013 (PL) / Holland Festival – Amsterdam (NL) / Kampnagel - Hamburg (DE) / Künstlerhaus Mousonturm – Frankfurt (DE) / Next Festival, Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai & Valenciennes (BE/FR) / BIT Teatergarasjen – Bergen (NO) / IDEOLOGIC ORGAN (AU) / Designgroup Professional GmbH (DE)Support to the creation: Festival Actoral
With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union, DICRéAM / ministère de la Culture et de la Communication and the Swedish Arts Council
Within the framework of the project TRANSFABRIK.
In collaboration with kunstencentrum BUDA, Kortrijkpremière: 29.05.2013