Yasmine Hugonnet: Empathic chamber

From copying to empathy, what are the movements?

Is this what we're all about? The piece plays with desires for "commonality", in language, in space. It wants to share the inventiveness and beauty of the state we find ourselves in, when we're learning, or in a process of appropriation. It is, for example, a composition of two distinct presences: one person who plunges into the adventure of gesture to generate movement, i.e. a "source" person. And another person, an empathetic "double" who can move along the whole creative scale that exists between non-participating observation and formal, totally faithful imitation of the "source's" language. What do I recognize, what do I want to make my own? The aim is to explore the issues involved in appropriating another's language through affective and mimetic empathy. Sensing the emerging gesture, pursuing it, deducing it, preceding it, inducing it.... The performance draws on the tools developed as part of my ongoing research into the concomitance of immobility and movement, attention and the practice of reciprocity. I will be part of a series of works on empathy.

Radouan Mriziga: Al-Monboso

In our modern era, there is a growing tendency to view wild landscapes, such as mountains, forests, oceans, and deserts, merely as sources of capital. However, for centuries, these landscapes served as both refuge and endless inspiration for the arts, philosophy, and science.

By observing and learning from communities that have maintained a close relationship with these environments, and have developed knowledge through spirituality, art, philosophy, craftsmanship, and science, we aim to approach these natural settings with the perspective of those who still regard them as fountains of knowledge and artistic inspiration.

Our journey will focus specifically on mountains, exploring how they symbolize both romantic and political spaces. For instance, we will delve into the significant role mountains have played throughout art history, how they continue to serve as sources of spirituality and inspiration for many artists (as seen in romantic art, for example), as well as places for reflection and contemplation within various religious traditions.
Mountains also have a political dimension, offering refuge and natural protection during times of conflict and oppression, and acting as resistance strongholds for communities challenging city authorities.
Beginning with dances, mythologies, stories, poems, music, paintings, songs, and rhythms originating in or inspired by these landscapes, we will collaboratively create choreographies. These choreographies aim to contribute artistically to the ongoing discussions surrounding the hierarchy of knowledge, the sharing of knowledge, and the current relationship between art and our ecological environments.

• 14+

Choreography Yasmine Hugonnet, Radouan Mriziga
Assistant choreographers Krisztina Abrànyi, Bilal El Had
With the dancers of the class G Sira Aymerich i Besalú, isam // Isabela Del Carmen Abad Montalvo, Alice Gratet, Baptiste Homère, Cyan Huescar, Gaëlle Jeanbourquin, Annaïk Juan-Torres, Paula Ramis Muñoz, Nyala Simpson, Jasmin Sisti, Adina Voldrabova, Judit Waeterschoot
Lighting and technical direction Nicolas Berseth
Sound and video Zineb Rostom
Costumes Lise Beauchamps
Photos Gregory Batardon

Thanks to Florine Bugnon and Robert Avery for the Farandole de Courtepin
Production La Manufacture - Haute école des arts de la scène
With the support of the Music and Performing Arts Department of the HES-SO