La Promenade du Squeptique

 

Held at:

Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, IT, June 2011
Theatre Academy, Helsinki, FI, June 2011, on the occasion of LAPSody
PPP Progr Performance Plattform, Bern, CH, June 2011, on the occasion of PPP Progr Performance Platform. Curated by Gisela Hochuli

Galerie KUB, Leipzig, DE, October 2011, on the occasion of Blauverschiebung. Curated by Christian Liefke and Franziska Eissler

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The public enters a dark space with torches. At the centre of the room, they can see a blanket covered in broken glass shards. On one side of the room, Stenke, dressed in pages of a book, sits on a chair. On the opposite side of the room, Pagnes sits with a book in his hands. They whistle to each other through distance and darkness. Stenke's face is covered by her hair, Pagnes' by a blindfold. Pagnes walks blindly towards the centre. Stenke continuously collapses and retakes position on the chair. Pagnes places the book in the centre of the blanket and breathes on its cover until exhaustion. Stenke walks blindly towards the centre, crumbling white pages with each step. Pagnes takes off his shoes and enters the carpet of broken glass. Stenke, stiff and blind, falls towards the blanket's centre. Pagnes catches her falling body. She walks one time around the blanket, with each step falling onto its centre, Pagnes always catches her, they are both blind. He takes her in his arms and turns around himself. He places her to stand on the book. He wraps up the blanket with the glass shards. She uncovers her face, he takes off his shirt. She rips off a piece of latex from this back, and invites the audience one by one to write on his back, asking them: "What do you remember?"

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The performance and its title are inspired by the 1747 book La Promenade du Scpetique by Denis Diderot.

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Dress design and realization: Students of Department of Design, Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice

Photographs by Andrea Morucchio (Venice), Antti Ahornen (Helsinki), Efa Mühlethaler (Bern)