Virginia Woolf’s novel about an androgynous character, swirling between male and female, Orlando is the kickoff of this opera-installation, which combines choreography, videos and live music within an immersive set, by which the audience can circulate. Directed by the Swiss Julie Beauvais and the French Horace Lundd, the work investigates gender and identity, themes dealt in the book and asks who would be the Orlandos of today, inhabitants of a world immersed in the post-binary paradigm. On the seven screens surrounding the installation, characters from Berlin, Kinshasa, Marfa, London, Belo Horizonte, Lisbon, Chandolin, Patagonia and Netherlands are projected side by side, all filmed in outdoor and ethereal scenarios, connecting the horizon of many regions of the world.
* After the presentation the artists have a talk with the audience

Swiss Julie Beauvais moves around opera, theatre, dance, architectural interventions, videos and performative installations. Her works explore the body experiences and human consciousness. She began her career in the US, after studying at École Jacques Lecoq, in Paris. In Chicago, she co-founded Sprung Theatre, where she developed choreographic works, and subsequently created the company Mondes Contraire in Geneva. In 2006, she began focusing on the dynamics that the lyrical voice causes in the singer’s body and, by extension, in the performance space. Since 2013, she has directedBadNewsFromTheStars *, a platform based in Valais, Switzerland, which brings together opera singers, musicians, multimedia artists, architects, scenographers and choreographers to explore the possibilities of opera – and confront this format with different territories. This interdisciplinary research results in a lyrical work, which is shared with the public through video installations, performances, films and large productions. The French artist Horace Lundd works with immersive installations and visual creations for videos, performances and sets. His work investigates narration in contemporary art and in liminal spaces.

CRITICS

In the middle of the polyhedron formed by the panels, two musicians shift playing Christophe Fellay’s sound composition. If the spectators strolling outside the structure project a shadow that crosses these seven eternal ghosts, those who group themselves in the centre end up gazing at each other as if contemplating the ambassadors of a humanity finally freed from their “stereotypes, prejudices and stigmas ”, as mentioned in the show’s program.

KATIA BERGER, Tribune de Genève

Indeed, the installation clashes with the codes of a traditional show. Everyone is free to usurp the narrative, to travel between the in and out of the structure, to sit and immerse themselves in the image and sound over the benevolent vigilance of these seven figures of the “new paradigm”. By the end of the 45-minute lasting slow movements, almost undetectable at first glance, the sensation that fills the spirits, the space, is that of a great inner peace.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBELDA, Le Nouvelliste

TECHNICAL SHEET

ARTISTIC DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY: Julie Beauvais
DIRECTION: Julie Beauvais and Horace Lundd
ARTISTIC DIRECTION, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOS: Horace Lundd
MUSIC AND SOUND COMPOSITION: Christophe Fellay
GUEST MUSICAL ARTIST: Bartira
SET DESIGN: Sibylle Kössler and Wynd van der Woude
CREATED WITH AND MOVED BY: Michael John Harper, Orakle Ngoy, Winsome Brown, Carolyn Cowan, Nyima, Diego Bagagal, August Schaltenbrand, Natalia Chami, Valentina Bordenave and Frans WM Franssens
PRODUCTION: BadNewsFromTheStars * and Horace Lundd
ASSOCIATE: LAPIS / EPFL – Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, Strasbourg Particle Accelerator
SUPPORT: Pro Helvetia – Swiss Foundation for Culture, Pro Helvetia COINCIDENCIA, CNC – National Center for Cinema and Animation – DICRéAM device for promoting development and production, Loterie Romande Vaud, Loterie Romande Valais, Canton of Valais – Service of Culture, DRAC – Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs of the Great East – individual promotion of creation, Greater East Region – promotion of the creation of spectacle and visual arts, City of Geneva – Department of Finance and Accommodation, HEAR – Haute École des Arts du Rhin
SUPPORT FOR SOUTH AMERICAN TOUR: Pro Helvetia – Swiss Foundation for Culture, Pro Helvetia COINCIDENCIA, Canton of Valais – Service of Culture