Dead trees give no shelter
Show | 2022
Tour
March 7th, 2022 // Scène Nationale d'Orléans
March 19th, 2022 // Biennale GRAME - Les Subs, Lyon
Mai 15th, 2022 Festival Propagations, Marseille
October 20th & 21st, 2022 // Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris
Januar 21st, 2023 // L'Arsenal, Metz
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
"Dead trees give no shelter" is perhaps best imagined in visual terms : surface, pigments, coarseness and roughness, oxidisation and fusion.
The public comes into a disintegrating set where choreographic, musical, architectural and lighting elements combine. They are invited to observe an apparently static tableau and sense the imperceptible vibration ; to ‘Live in the ruin’ as Anna Tsing and her anthropology of damaged worlds puts it.
In this musical and choreographed production, decay appears symbolically in the form of three vertical structures, each six metres high, which evoke Palmyra or the Pompeian baths, Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall and the ravages of our more recent history.
Performers and musicians emerge from these structures, becoming a kind of diorama ; their bodies constrained and held back by a space whose boundaries gradually disintegrate leaving only the oxidised remains.
‘Space carries us, then space overwhelms us. Humanity exists in this period of time’ (Aurélien Bory)
I invited Helge Sten, icon of the Norwegian electro-ambient scene, and the choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana to experience this space. The electric vibration created by the density of Sten’s music creates an almost physical experience which, combined with the tension of Ratsifandrihana’s choreography, takes the audience on a 75-minute journey through this world. The performance is suitable for a traditional forward-facing audience, or in the round with the possibility of a promenading audience. I will play the double bass alongside Sten. We create music responding to the acoustics of the space so each evening is unique.
The three dancers, with their transforming, changeable bodies, will produce scenes of pulsating, energetic and syncopated dance which will create a counterpoint to the sonic immersion of Sten’s ‘AudioVirus’ (a mixture of homemade electronics, old tape echo machines, ring modulators, filters, theremins, Buchla synthesiser and samples.) The dance will gradually intensify to an out of body state of rapture and ecstasy.
Production • HowNow
Co-production • Cité Musicale - l'Arsenal de Metz, CCN de Caen, CCN de Bourgogne Franche Comté - Viadanse, GRAME, GMEM, La Muse en Circuit, Le Lieu Unique
Support • CMN, SACEM, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway, ADAMI
Florentin Ginot Artistic direction
Helge Sten Music composition
Soa Ratsifandrihana Choreography
Michael Bölter Dramaturgy adviser
Olivier Defrocourt Stage design
Marie-Hélène Pinon Light design
Claire Belloc Costume designer
Martin Antiphon Sound direction
Simon Gautier Light technician
Sylvaine Nicolas Stage manager
Performance : Soa Ratsifandrihana, Julie Richalet, Germain Zambi, Florentin Ginot, Helge Sten, Frédéric Stochl