Did you say performance? Or did you say theater? Both, general. It seems that these two are the marriage of the moment. In theater, the word “performance”, which rather belongs to the language of contemporary art, is currently everywhere: in seasonal programs, in the mouths of programmers, in the analyzes of critics, academics or journalists. Julien Gosselin just named head of the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europethe second theater institution in France, caused a stir by announcing that its programming would emphasize performative forms. Autumn Festivalwho has always welcomed these mixed forms, intensifies his gesture, under the direction of the artistic director for theater and dance, Francesca Corona.
This fall, the shows that get people talking are, in many cases, either forms classified under the “performance” tab, but which are close to theater in many ways, such as the magnificent No skin, by Théo Mercieror theatrical forms heavily infused with performance. Be it amazing A Noiva and Good Night Cinderellaby Carolina BianchiFROM Cecileby Marion Duvalwith the incredible Cécile LaporteFROM The black book called desire Or He would rather throw up than failby Rébecca Chaillon, or the various small forms signed by Stephanie Aflalo. But we could also talk about those of Marion Siefertby Laurène Marx or by Miet Warlopwhich continues to rotate.
Let’s immediately clear up a misunderstanding: the “performance” in question here is not the one that took place in contemporary art, in the rich times of the 1960s and 1970s, namely a unique, non-reproducible action, the traces of which remain thanks to photography or cinema. We should rather talk about“performative mentality”as the academic Joseph Danan, author of a seminal book on the subject, writes: Between theater and performance, the problem of the text (Actes Sud, 2013).
This performative “spirit” takes many codes from this original source, which Danan elaborates in his work: “The involvement of the artist himself; the non-separation of art and life (or the shaking of this boundary); the primal importance of the body; the uniqueness of the event, the role of the unforeseen, the uncontrollable, even the improvised, in any case the ephemeral nature of the work; sharing an experience; protest, challenge (of academicism/political power); transgression, subversion; the feminist claim, the question addressed to gender and sexual identity; marginality, always in tension with actual or possible recovery. »
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