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12 May 2011 @ Théâtre Jean Lurçat - Scène Nationale - Aubusson (France)

Manivelles

a modern show but unplugged

Winding mechanisms
This project started as an intention, or perhaps an intuition… Is it possible to make a multimedia performance that is disconnected from electricity, its main source of energy?
Is this a whimsical thought or a real question?
And other questions appeared: What effort would be needed in the conception, realisation and production of the performance? Would this effort disappear once the work is seen and acknowledged? Is it possible to produce the volatile and massive electronic sound or the fluidity of projected video images without the incredible power of the electric flow of energy available through a simple plug?
Obliged to find a metaphorical interpretation, we followed the path, sometimes being forced to adopt a different logic because of the obvious connections between the materials used. The aim was to build from the source and obtain as far as possible, a precise definition of the type of sound or projected image that emanates from an electronic impulse.
Little by little, after hours and weeks of work we assembled together a series of sound and visual mechanisms. They started as imagined objects with a precise aim but as we tested them, the surprises we had lead to the discovery of other methods, leading to other investigations and inventions.
In the end, the performance that was produced had a certain fluidity inviting the audience to hear strange mixes of evocative or concrete sound or to see the mingling of shadow and light. All of this required the precise and somewhat constraint gestures of five artists, obliged to cooperate in a permanent flow of relayed solidarity.
They become riveted to the task of maintaining an energy flow they must create without electricity – whether it be mechanically through dynamos or virtually through imaginary machines – these artists-builders-cyclists-manipulators remain attentive to the birth of perception; everything must be heard (from the rustle of an object to the explosion of a scrape amplified through the effort made) and everything must be seen from all angles around (even blinking, focusing, concentrated or distracted).

As they unfold on stage, these sound and visual machines offer space (distance, proximity, height and depth); volumes, lengths, differences so that the present day world unfurls like a dream.

Co-production Théâtre Jean Lurçat-Scène Nationale d'Aubusson, Centre Culturel André Malraux-Scène Nationale de Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy. With the support of ADAMI

(Translation : Angie Cote)

Trailer : https://vimeo.com/70581885
Extracts : https://vimeo.com/65012036