Documentary object theatre (España-Mexico)

The melancholy of the tourist is a decomposition of moments and objects though which the idea of paradise stays fixed in the imagination. It emerges from a field work we made in Acapulco, Mexico, and La Habana, Cuba. Holiday places where we brought back life stories, photos, postcards and souvenirs that speak about the rise and fall of that mental fantasy. How many seconds last the building and loss of a paradise?

La melancolía del turista is a gallery of mirages, a glimpse of what remains after the intensity of a sublimated landscape that no longer exists—or perhaps never existed—of a body that fades in time, revived only through remnants of memory.

It questions the life of images we produce in our idea of rest. But melancholy is also a suspended state of mind that accompanies the exceptional, an active force that pulls us toward the desire to reinvent and re-imagine ourselves in those lapses when the inertia of things fractures.

An intimate journey for 42 spectators. A small-scale stage where things appear and disappear through blinks: lights and shadows, analog images, fragile mechanisms, miniatures in paper and tin. A delicate theater-cinema, a dream-like play whose poetic inventiveness takes you back to a time when all our toys were alive

This play speaks abot the role of relationships. It is presented with characters that interwine and observe, from the demand of being something or someone everytime. Next to Diego Pazo and Dácil González, Daniel Abreu dances boundaries and strategies about presence and makes it by exploring the posibilities and particularities of the language of the dance.

They are told as options, like an enormous ecosystem of ways of see living in each of us. The feeling of being multiple, the one who has to face the variety of climates, and not only the seasons, but also the ever-changing landscapes.

The interest of polysemic leads to find similarities in different points, not only related to nature, but also in social or technological ecosystems. A living body is exposed against the inmensity o fan habitat where it tends to protect itself while exposing, with walls defending us and that might define us.

John Berger says: “It is aoutside cieties where nature, geography, climate have their major strenght, their greatest impact capability, which stablishes horizons. In the cities, if we were at the top of a tower with no views, there are no horizons… The direction od the jungle is fertile, politheist, mortal. The direciton of deserts is severe, unalterable.”

This can be a territory, but also is a body and how it interacts.

Dance choreography performed in the immersive environment of a moving cube, to explore the fleeting nature of dreams and the fugacity of life.

“In Japanese, "Hakanai" means ‘impermanent, fragile, evanescent, transitory, and fleeting’, somewhere between dream and reality. This very ancient word also captures an elusive aspect of the human condition and its precariousness, but also grounded in nature. It’s written by combining the graphic characters symbolizing ‘man’ and ‘dream’. This symbolic association is the starting point for a dancer who will face images revealing what lies on the brink of imagination and reality.”

Adrien M & Claire B

Live animations based on physical movement modelling, on an original music score played live. After the tri-frontal performance, the audience will be invited to explore the stage installation.

Conception, artistic direction scenography and stage setting 
Claire Bardainne & Adrien Mondot

Computer Design 
Adrien Mondot

Dance 
Akiko Kajihara

Digital Interpretation 
Loïs Drouglazet

Sound Design 
Christophe Sartori, Loïs Drouglazet

Sound Interpretation 
Clément Aubry

Set Design and construction 

• Martin Gautron, Vincent Perreux 
• Digital Toolset 
• Loïs Drouglazet

Light Design 
Jérémy Chartier

Outside Viewer 
Charlotte Farcet

Costume 
Johanna Elalouf

Administration
Marek Vuiton, assisted by Ana Vergeau

Technical Direction
Raphaël Guénot

Production and booking
Joanna Rieussec assisted by Adèle Béhar

Production
Margaux Fritsch, Delphine Teypaz, Juli Allard Schaefer

Production
Adrien M & Claire B

Co-productions

• Les Subsistances, Lyon
• Centre Pompidou-Metz Accompagnement à la production et résidence de création,
• Ferme du Buisson, scène nationale de Marne-la-Vallée
• Région Rhône-Alpes Fonds [SCAN] 
• Atelier Arts-Sciences, Grenoble 
• Les Champs Libres, Rennes 
• Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains
• Co-financé dans le cadre du programme « Lille, Ville d’Arts du Futur » visant à développer les expérimentations mêlant arts et innovations technologiques
• Accueil en résidence Centre de création et de production de la Maison de la Culture de Nevers et de la Nièvre (MCNN)
• Micro Mondes, Lyon

Funding
Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication DICRéAM

The Adrien M & Claire B Company is accredited by DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes,  Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and is supported by the City of Lyon.

Photos © Romain Etienne/item