Swamp Club
Dream and reality
Philippe Quesne describes his new performance as a fantastic, musical urban fable. It is set in an isolated swamp inhabited by strange creatures. In this marshy landscape stands a building on stilts: the Swamp Club. It is an arts centre and residential space for artists. The residents live here together with animals of the water and the forest. They receive artists from Poland or Iceland, as well as a chamber orchestra with which they record classical music. We hear snatches of Shostakovich’s string quartet no. 8 and from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. When this utopian centre is threatened, the Swamp Club has to come up with a defence strategy...
• Philippe Quesne cleverly plays with the conventions of theatre. He creates a world in which he interweaves dream and reality, music and language. He starts out from the rituals of everyday life and transforms them into small ceremonies that are sometimes melancholic, sometimes funny. For the tenth anniversary of his Vivarium Studio, Quesne is creating a performance with some of his very first associates and also performers he has met on his tours abroad.
Philippe Quesne originates from the visual arts. Since the founding of Vivarium Studio in 2003, he has become one of the most important international performing artists. His work has been staged worldwide, from Avignon to New York and Hong Kong. At the Kaaitheater we presented his productions L'Effet de Serge, La Mélancolie des Dragons and Big Bang.
Since January 2014 Philippe Quesne is the new director of the theatre of Nanterre-Amandiers.
Soul Food: diner avec Philippe Quesne
Sa 22/02 18:00>20:00 Kaaitheater | FR | dinner € 12
Soul food? Mmm… tasty! And above all interesting too: Philippe Quesne, artist and outstanding theatre-maker, gives us a glimpse into his soul: what inspires him in his work? The journalist Anna Luyten leads the conversation. In French.
conceived, directed and designed by Philippe Quesne | with Isabelle Angotti, Snæbjörn Brynjarsson, Yvan Clédat, Cyril Gomez-Mathieu, Ola Maciejewska, Émilien Tessier, Gaëtan Vourc’h and the Amôn String Quartet: Aymeric de Villoutreys (Violon 1), Margaret Hermant (Violon 2), Antoine Combot (Alto), François-Jean Ysambart (Violoncelle) | artistic co-operations Yvan Clédat, Cyril Gomez-Mathieu | assistant Marie Urban | Photographs Martin Argyroglo | Drawing Ludovic Debeurme | costumes Corine Petitpierre | technical manager Marc Chevillon | Sound and light manager Thomas Laigle | Construction Nicolas Amar, Timothy Larcher, Nicolas Loridan, Fabrice Parizy | interns Céline Champinot, Léo Gobin | Production-Administration Dominique Bouchot, Sandra Orain | production Vivarium Studio | co-production Wiener Festwochen (Autriche), Théâtre de Gennevilliers - Centre Dramatique National, de création contemporaine (France), Festival d’Automne à Paris (France), Foreign Affairs – Berliner, Festspiele (Allemagne), Festival d’Avignon (France), La Ménagerie de Verre (France), Le Forum /Scène conventionnée de Blanc-Mesnil (France), Kaaitheater (Belgique), La Filature Scène nationale de Mulhouse (France), Internationales Sommerfestival – Hambourg (Allemagne), Festival Theaterformen Hanovre / Braunschweig (Allemagne), La Bâtie – Festival de Genève (Suisse). Avec le soutien du Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon (France) et de EMPAC – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and the Performing Arts (Etats-Unis). Une action financée par la Région Ile-de-France. La compagnie est conventionnée par la DRAC Île-de-France, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, et par le Conseil Régional Île-de-France au titre de la Permanence artistique et culturelle. Philippe Quesne est artiste associé au Théâtre de Gennevilliers depuis 2012.
Created in June 2013 at Wiener Festwochen
A House on Fire co-production; with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union
