Lifestyle Calendar - 21 April 2022

Compagnie AΦE - The Dance Theatre of the Future

 Esteban Fourmi et Aoi Nakamura  - WHIST 

From 14 to 22 April 2022 - PREMIÈRE in Paris 

4 – 8 May 2022 - Gulbenkian, Canterbury, UK

WHIST Photo by Paul Plews

Welcome to the dance theatre of the future imagined by Esteban Fourmi and Aoi Nakamura. A dive into the twists and turns of consciousness, a dialogue between art and virtual reality.

Esteban Fourmi crossed paths with Aoi Nakamura in 2013. Together they founded the company AΦE, which aims to rethink the format of performance by bringing virtuality into creation. For WHIST, the duo invites the audience to equip themselves with a virtual reality headset to experience a daydream that closely approximates the physical and mental states of the three characters. The viewer is immersed in a film set in an abandoned house.

The "visitor", guided by his subconscious, moves and thus influences the course of his story, which plays out before his eyes. Esteban Fourmi and Aoi Nakamura draw inspiration from Sigmund Freud and offer each viewer an analysis of their experience after the dance.

PHILIPPE NOISETTE

Nowadays, there are many possibilities in art with the help of virtual reality. The place of the spectator is also evolving, to the point of being the actor of the performance? With Whist, it's really the spectator who triggers the piece. It's also that there is only one story, but there are 76 possible perspectives in that story. 

WHIST - Photo by ACE

About the concept of WHIST:

“We had many conversations with psychoanalysts working at the Freud Museum and were introduced to several patient case studies. We thought: ‘What if those patients formed one single family?’ And there we were, completely immersed in their worlds…Freud’s own theories about fears, dreams, symbolism in dreams and the notion of the unconscious is just the beginning.” 

About the fact of the active spectator in the piece:  

“As always, we are both attracted by the unknown, and we wanted to exploit the full potential of VR to achieve a total immersion of our audience. The audience, in fact, is the live element of the performance. Everything else exists according to its individual decisions. The viewer is his own director. His decisions influence the entire perspective on the story. We hope people will leave with a strong sense of the narrative possibilities and their implications; we hope people will think about the many other ways of looking at things. We all have the tendency to forget all this in our daily lives." 

Does virtual reality have a future in art:

“From a technical point of view, it was challenging for us to come up with solutions to incorporate more than 110 minutes of film in high resolution with interactive 3D sound, and to create a seamless interactivity between real objects and the world within the VR headset. WHIST represents innovation in theatre making and touring formats, as well as pushing boundaries in Virtual Reality Storytelling.” 

Esteban Fourmi & Aoi Nakamura

Compagnie AΦE Esteban Fourmi et Aoi Nakamura - WHIST 

From 14 to 22 April 2022 - PREMIÈRE in Paris.

Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse 

Direction Didier Deschamps 1, place du Trocadéro 75116 Paris 

 www.theatre-chaillot.fr 

About the founders of Compagnie AΦE

Aoi Nakamura

Artistic Director - Choreographer

Aoi received her training at the Leipzig Opera Ballet School and graduated from the Berlin State Ballet School in 2006. She joined the Staatstheater Saarbrücken in Germany (2006-2009) and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in Germany (2009-2011), where she danced choreographies by Marguerite Donlon, Stephan Thoss, Itzik Galili, Rafael Bonachela, Uwe Scholz, Marco Goecke, Idan Cohen, Medhi Walerski and many others. Since 2011 she has worked with the company Jasmin Vardimon (2012-2019), Punchdrunk (2014), Angie Hiesel Production (2011-2013) and Neon Dance (2013-2019). Her choreography Ototoxic (2008) won first prize at the Aarhus International Choreography Competition in 2010 and has been performed in Germany and Japan. She choreographed several theatre productions, at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in Germany (2010-2011), Dance4's Cat in Nottingham (2013) and an evening celebrating 150 years of friendship between Germany and Japan in Hesse, Germany in 2011. Aoi is the artistic director of AΦE and co-founder of the company in 2013 with Esteban Fourmi.

Esteban Fourmi

Artistic Director - Choreographer

Esteban received his ballet training in several countries, starting with France in 2001 at the Conservatoire d'Angers and the Conservatoire de Paris. He then continued his training at the Rosella Hightower in Cannes, which led him to the great Palucca School in Dresden. He then joined the Johannes Wieland Dance Company in Kassel in 2008 and participated in various projects in Europe, such as Punchdrunk (2013-2014) and NovaTanz. Esteban joined the Jasmin Vardimon Company (JVC) in 2009. Since then, he has been deeply involved in the work of the JVC, through the creation of new works, the revival of the company's repertoire and also the implementation of its various educational programmes as the main animator. His involvement in creation alongside Vardimon includes 7734, Home (commissioned by the Royal Opera House), Freedom, Park, Pinoccio, Tahnhäuser (commissioned by the Royal Opera House) and also the revival of Shabbat, one of Vardimon's first works. He also acted and directed in the famous works Yesterday and Justitia. In parallel with his performing career, he began choreographing and directed Habille-toi-toi! (2008) at State Thetaer Kassel and Hard Core Will Never Die (2013) at Woking Dance Festival. Esteban is the artistic director of AΦE.

Art Calendar / Art - 14 April 2022

Stephan Kaluza "Fiction / Non-Fiction" - Interview - Naturalness versus Artificiality - 8 to 30 April 2022 - at

Geuer & Geuer, Düsseldorf

"Transit II" is meant to represent a transit situation of threatened nature. The artist succeeds in presenting his idyllic paintings entirely without illustrative elements as a warning. Philosophy of nature is central to the artist's work. Thus, he has launched his latest book - Stephan Kaluza - "Die Dritte Natur" 

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©Stephan Kaluza

Art Calendar / Business / Fashion - 20 April 2022

THE ARCHIVE COLLECTION 

A cooperation between C&A

and the Draiflessen Collection

22.06. until 15.01.2023 

The new exhibition of the commercially successful THE ARCHIVE COLLECTION at the Draiflessen Collection Museum as part of the annual motto "Listening and Learning". An interview with curator Dr. Maria Spitz about the pioneering work of C&A, the orientation and the self-image of the Draiflessen Collection. 

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©C&A

Art Calendar - 18 April 2022

Harewood Biennial - Radical Acts - Craft is Radical and Calls to Action

26 March to 29 August 2022.

Curated by Hugo Macdonald, the exhibition explores how craft can inspire radical action. The meaning of 'radical' is derived from the Latin word 'root', and in Radical Acts craft is presented as a bridge between our roots and the future. Artists will examine how classic craftsmanship can be used to achieve a better future and a healthier system.

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Harewood Biennial - Francisca Onumah-Murmur

©Edvinas Bruzas