MODULAR PERFORMANCE | CREATION 2020
“A concert installation oscillating between the cabinet of curiosities and alchemist kitchen” Rainer Nonnenmann, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
The public is invited to investigate a scenic space bordered by display vitrines that come to life one by one in which mechanical puppets stand side by side with automated objects or decomposing human and vegetal figures. Hovering between a dream and a nightmare, the universe of Situations combines scenic and musical relics to create an intimate environment that can be experienced in the round.
“The theme of the robot that goes off the rails, of the robot’s self-destruction, is a correlative of the theme of revolt. (…) We cannot but wonder whether this is not man’s way of using technology in its most demented incarnations to celebrate the future occurrence of his own death “Jean Baudrillard, The System of objects.
At the centre of this space, Florentin Ginot (double bass) and Stefan Prins (live electronics) create a spatialized hybrid musical material made of algorithms and samples. The live musical mechanisms act upon the relics of such source material as Gillespie’s bebop or Ashwell’s vocalharmonies in an attempt to deconstruct, granulate and dissolve them into a sonic jigsaw puzzle. The body of the double bass is laid upon its back and manipulated like an anatomical object that its performer caresses, strikes and hits.
“Because the automated object ‘works by itself, its resemblance to the autonomous human being is unmistakable, and the fascination thus created carries the day. We are in the presence of a new anthropomorphism. (…) It is no longer his gestures, his energy, his needs and the image of his body that man projects into automated objects, but instead the autonomy of his consciousness, his power of control, his own individual nature, his personhood.” J. Baudrillard, ibid
Situations,just as a dystopian journey, invites the audience to create their own narrative, to choose their place within the installation in order to connect the musical and visual elements, and thus to dream about the notions of memory, absurdity, decadence, madness and childhood.
PRODUCTION HowNow | CO-PRODUCTION La Muse en Circuit | SUPPORT Ministère de la Culture – DRAC IDF, Sacem, Ensemble Musikfabrik
TEAM
Artistic direction • Florentin Ginot
Musical collaboration • Stefan Prins
Collaboration to the stage direction • Lea Letzel
Mechanisms & programmation • Jacques Bouault
Sound direction • Martin Anthiphon
Light design • Marie-Hélène Pinon