International Festival of Contemporary Theatre
Programme
Microcosm
5 - 13 September 15:00-20:00 A house on Briāna street 13 | Free entrance
‘Microcosm’ is a concert-situation for one instrument and six listeners so deeply absorbed in the process of playing music and listening as if they would be doing it for years. It’s impossible to distract them but it’s also impossible to join to become part of this weird audience.
A cohesive, emotional, non-human installation where all the elements of scenography perform in their own right was originally created as French exhibit for the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2019, where it was awarded as the best work in the section of countries and regions.
‘Microcosm’ is part of the scenography and performance space programme B13 at the former school building on Briāna street 13 that looks at scenography as an autonomous and collective artistic practice. It’s the activity of the international co-operation project EMERGENCE supported by the EU programme Creative Europe.
About the artist
After ten years as a set designer for opera, concerts, theatre performances, and contemporary art exhibitions, French artist Philippe Quesne created Vivarium Studio in 2003 in Paris, a laboratory for theatrical innovation which features painters, actors, dancers, musicians and a dog. Since 2014 he runs Nanterre-Amandiers National Centre for Dramatic Art near Paris.
The performances by Philippe Quesne showcase simple yet fantastic images – an improvised amusement park in a deserted snowy landscape, explorers in potted plant jungles that re-enact the Big Bang, or a thirty-year-old Serge playing in his apartment with a toy car that draws circles with a sparkler. In his creations a childlike amazement in front of the magic of theater meets with a gentle melancholy about the limitations of mankind.
Credits
Author: Philippe Quesne
Original Music: Pierre Desprats “Crash Park”, “Le Secret du Rocher”
Music extract: Scorpions “Sill loving you”
Coordination of the pavillion: Elodie Dauguet
Technic: Nicolas Barrot, Joachim Fosset, Thomas Laigle
Realisation: Workshop Nanterre-Amandiers (Marie Maresca, Jérome Chretien, Claude Sangiorgi, Jean-Michel Huard, Charlotte Wallet)
Image: Eva Kořínková
5 - 13
September
15:00-20:00
Free entrance
