Le Poids du Vide / The Weight of Emptiness
Worlds are slipping away, truth is, one after the other, from darkness to darkness and their succession might not mean anything....
Jérôme Ferrari, The Sermon on the Fall of Rome
THE TALK
Looking back, The Year 2000, when the end of the world was expected. We are still here. Nonetheless, doubt itself has never gone. Since then, our environment seems to fall apart under our eyes: diplomatic relations, economy, weather forecast. Is it just a sign of transition or are we in the midst of a precipitous drop?
We are interested in the concept of chaos and decline. How the immutable universe can break down all of a sudden. And how the human being tries to recover tiny parts to rebuild what is left, in an endless and hopeless motion. The labours of Sisyphus.
How, within an environment he has no control over, the human being tries to make sense with events that are happening. As if it could help regaining the upper hand and tackle the fall. What can I do against absurdity? Surrender and go with the flow? Or rather the opposite, fight and celebrate every piece of ground that has been taken back?
LE POIDS DU VIDE is a show made of a fifty-meter long red rope and two artists who are awkwardly evolving and looking for a place within a growing hostile universe. This red wire, which is supposed to lead them, let them down. They are now on their own. All along the show, the characters are trying to be in control, in order to keep up appearances and avoid losing face.
Among soft rope, giant string games, aerial pulley and slakrope, the show also appraises the actual situation of aerial and rope research. For the last few years, we have made the attempt to approach the rope differently and question its height, weight, as well as the materials it is made of as alternative ways equally profitable and compelling depending on the situation.
Concept, performers: Stéphanie N’Duhirahe, Morgane Widmer
Supervision: Minh Hieu Nguyen
Special effects, technician on the stage: Jan Kalivoda
Light design: Vlado Veleta, Jan Kalivoda
Production: Jakub Urban