Libido SciendiFRANCE - DANSE - (france)

Libido Sciendi
FRANCE - DANSE
New production
Conception, installation Pascal Rambert
With Nina Santes and Kévin Jean
Transmission by Lorenzo de Angelis
Creation June 7, 8 and 9th at the Grand Palais (Paris) for Monumenta 2012 : Daniel
Buren au Grand Palais - EXCENTRIQUE(S), travail in situ
Production Théâtre de Gennevilliers Centre Dramatique National de création contemporaine
Play first created in july 2008 in Montpellier Danse festival, Commissioned by Jean-Paul Montanari,
coproduced by Montpellier Danse Festival
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Presentation
Libido Sciendi
Conception, installation Pascal Rambert / With Nina Santes and Kévin Jean
Two dancers walk onstage, remove their jeans and T-shirts and melt into a passionate embrace. The
opening is the prelude to a choreographic coupling of every part of the dancers' bodies. Two naked
bodies bathed in light, with no musical accompaniment beyond the dancers' breathing, and the audible
dialogue of their skin.
The ultimate shock of an artwork that takes our deepest, most intimate secrets as the starting point for its
exploration of the human condition: Libido Sciendi, created and directed by Pascal Rambert, is a literal
treatise on the nature of erotic desire, expressed in pure physical movement, in the service of dance
alone. The extreme sensuality of each body's response to the other engenders a vision of an inner body,
trembling with consuming, absolute desire. Beyond purely sexual union, this is an act engrossing the
body in its entirety. Pascal Rambert is not concerned with pornography, which he sees as devoid of
imagination. Rather, he seeks to demonstrate a connection to life through eroticism. "It feels like a
religious spectacle, which I find fascinating."
Libido Sciendi means both “I learn through sex" and "I am taught by sexuality". The piece is less an
opportunity to see, and more an opportunity to learn. Because knowledge of the other is achieved
through a connection with the body, the stage becomes a theatre of "physical desire", a definition of the
nature of dance itself.
Pascal Rambert touches the paradoxical core of the nature of art by using dance to explore the sexual
act – territory normally eschewed by the art of choreography. Devoid of metaphors and figurative tropes,
Libido Sciendi presents the reality of love itself. A pas de deux between two bodies reaching out to each
other, creating a contiguous whole.
With no narrative, the work is a series of pictorial variations on the theme of the enamoured body, a
succession of living tableaux. A fusion of skin, and every part of the body: slow, gentle, frenetic,
conveying a sense of aesthetic fulfilment whose impact is far greater than a mere catalogue of sexual
exercises. Because creative art can brook no censorship, because this living performance is not intended
to be provocative, but on the contrary to arouse genuine emotion, Libido Sciendi is not recommended for
viewers under 18 years of age.
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
The course
Libido Sciendi
In July 2000 I wrote Le debut de l’A. In January 2005 I directed this piece at the Comedie Francaise. In
the middle of the show, in a white space, the two actors standing on either side of a red Ducati 999,
dressed alike, interrupted the text, got entirely undressed, approached each other and kissed, naked, for
many long minutes, in silence. Then they separated and got dressed in each other’s clothes and
restarted the text. These few suspended minutes – these two naked bodies, a kiss – are the object of
Libido Sciendi. Libido sciendi means I want to know, but by extension and in function to the context also I
learn through sex as well as I am taught by sexuality.
I want to know.
It is a suspended time – these two naked bodies, this kiss – that I open, in the sense that I hear it, widen
it, give it space, volume, time. I give it a body.
This moment when I have half opened the theatre scene, I want to enlarge it on the dance scene.
Fifty minutes. 5 x 10. In 5 segments the sexual act and / or love on the ground. Naked. Under the light.
Without anything else. On a 2 x 2 meter white square.
I am horrified when I see pornography. I am horrified by the lack of imagination. I am pained by the
academia, here, like in everything moreover. By the poverty of the body language. I want to give my
opinion on this question. I want to treat the question of physical desire. Entirely. Without braking. Without
limits. Without hiding anything. This piece is restricted to people less than 18 years old.
I want to see.
Why hide? Why show? How to speak of the first minute? Of this always first time? Of this first
attachment? Of the open bolt of the lips and of what follows the lips once opened? In my films, I film that.
In theatre I put words inside this. Here, I open the body like a grenade. I show one body against the
other. I treat the deviation. A form of summary and temporary cannibalism: to sleep. To eat. To take. To
take again. To open. To close. To bone. To reclose. To spread apart. To fold. To open. To begin again.
The words of the dance. The words of a sexual language. That’s all.
Pascal Rambert
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Mode d’emploi
Libido Sciendi
I am not a choreographer. I have worked with contemporary dancers for 20 years. Therefore the act
to operate on bodies is at the same time familiar and quotidian but socially unknown. Which is not a
problem. It is almost a joy. But that gives the desire to isolate the writing of the body and put it
uniquely in the service of the dance. Of only dance. Of only the body. Outside of words.
I envision a month and a half of workshopping. I voluntarily use this word because I need to watch. To
see how this will work. To follow how this passes. In theatre, I go quickly. Here I want to take my time.
Like a young choreographer. As if I know nothing. As if I want to forget. Shut myself up, sit down in the
studio and watch. For a few weeks.
Then I will create the piece in the last few days. So that it will remain fresh. Alive. Rewritten each night
in real time. There is a co writing each night between the “stopped” writing during rehearsals and what
I always practice in theatre: writing in real time. Truly reinvented each night.
I am going to work on how we kiss with the tongue. On the visible modification of the naked eye on the
shiver of the skin. I want to establish a precise sequential of the sexual relationship. Beginning.
Middle. End. In a clinical and sensual fashion. A little like Damien Hirst when he cuts a cow or a shark
into blocks. The points of the breasts. The mouth to skin contact. The humidity. I want to establish all
the possibilities by placing together things that don’t meet: mouth – toe, mouth-heel, mouth – knee,
mouth – sex, sex – sex, sex – breast, breast – toe, toe – ear, ear – testicules, testicules – mouth,
stomach – ass, ass above, ass below, below, above, side, etc.
As this progressively approaches devouring. The crushing of the body. The trampling. The treading.
The suffocation. The penetration. The thrusting. The deformation. The affrontation.
The affrontation by copulation. The pleasure. That renders the body a bow at times. Stretched.
Unstretched.
I feel I should also work quite a bit on the lightness, the weightlessness that follows. The legs cut. The
nothingness. The silence.
Or in a completely different sense. Maybe end middle beginning. Or middle beginning end. I don’t
know. I will see what commands the piece.
In any case I will not be in a narrative order seen strictly as the chronological sexual act.
Therefore we understand that we have to knead and work three or four different motifs to the point of
the exhaustion of the motif in the following motif.
It is necessary to accumulate a lot of material in the studio. For that we must take time for the state of
the dancers bodies to be imaginatively flexible.
And lively prove the present.
Pascal Rambert, 22 décembre 2007
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Technical rider / planning
Libido Sciendi
Space & technical rider
Space : Studio
Lights : Lights of the studio
Sound : No sound
Transport
J -1 : 3 or 4 people travel : the 2 performers, Pascal Rambert and the production manager
J : rehearsal + 1 or 2 shows
J +1 : departure
No set design
Accommodation / Per Diem
2 nights for 3 or 4 people : one double room and one or two single rooms.
Per diem : 1 meal per person per day of travel and 2 meals the day of the show
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Biographies
Libido Sciendi
Pascal Rambert
Director of the Théâtre de Gennevilliers since january 2007, Pascal Rambert was born in 1962. He began writing
and directing his own work in 1982. In 1984, he created his company Side One Posthume Théâtre. From 2004 to
2006, he was associated artist at the Bonlieu-scène nationale in Annecy.
In 2006, he was nominated director of the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, he was the first successor of founder, Bernard
Sobel.
His texts are published by Actes Sud-Papiers and Solitaires Intempestifs – directed by himself and other in France,
Europe, the United States and Japan.
1984 Désir et Les lits / Centre dramatique national de Nice (F)
1985 Météorologie / this text received le Prix spécial USA
1986 Allez Hop / Festival d’Eté de Seine Maritime de Rouen (F)
1987 Le réveil / Centre national des écritures du spectacle, La Chartreuse Villeneuve-Lès-Avignon (F)
1989 Les Parisiens / 43ème Festival d’Avignon (F)
1990-1991 research in the United States and the Middle East (USA)
1992 John & Mary / Théâtre des Amandiers-Nanterre (F)
1993 De mes propres mains / Théâtre des Amandiers-Nanterre (F)
1997 Long Island / La Criée-Théâtre national de Marseille (F)
1997 Race / Festival Octobre en Normandie, Théâtre Gérard PhilippeSaint-Denis, Los Angeles with LAPD Theater Group (USA)
2000 L’Épopée de Gilgamesh / Experimental Theater Wing New York University – 54ème Festival d’Avignon (F)
2001 Asservissement Sexuel Volontaire / Théâtre National de la Colline, Théâtre
des Salins-scène nationale de Martigues, Bonlieu-scène nationale d’Annecy (F)
2002-2003 workshops and performances FSO (forms without ornament) which begin physical, oral and plastic
workshops in real time / Ménagerie de verre, Parc de la Villette, Comédie de Caen, Les Subsistances-Lyon,
Bonlieu-scène nationale d’Annecy, mc2-Maison de la culture de Grenoble, Ballet Atlantique Régine Chopinot-CCN
La Rochelle (F)
2004 Paradis (un temps à déplier) / Théâtre National de la Colline (Paris, F), Comédie de Caen (F), Bonlieuscène nationale d’Annecy (F), festival de Sarrebruck (DE), Dance Theater Workshop New York (USA)
2004 direction Philomela, Opera James Dillon / Teatro Rivoli Porto (PO), Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (F).
2005 Le début de l’A / Comédie Française (Paris, F)
2005 Pan / Opera Marc Monnet from the texts of Christophe Tarkos / production Opéra national du Rhin de
Strasbourg in coproduction with the Ircam (F)
2005 AFTER/BEFORE / 59ème Festival d’Avignon, Bonlieu-scène nationale d’Annecy, Théâtre de Gennevilliers
2006 Un garçon débout, choreography of Rachid Ouramdane preformed by Pascal Rambert / Bonlieu-scène
nationale d’Annecy (F), La Ménagerie de verre (Paris, F), CDC Toulouse (F), Festival d’Utrecht (NE).
2006 Mon Fantôme, show for young public / Bonlieu Scène nationale d’Annecy (F)
2007 De mes propres mains (recréation) / Bonlieu-scène Nationale d’Annecy (F)/ Théâtre des Salins-scène
nationale de Martigues (F), Ménagerie de Verre à Paris (F)
2007 Le début de l’A, recreated inTokyo (Japan) in the Comédie-Française version, in japonese langage, with
japonese performers / Théâtre de l’Agora-direction Oriza Hirata (Japan)
2007 Toute la vie / created at the T2G (F). Touring during the Printemps des arts festival in Monaco and at
Bonlieu-scène nationale d’Annecy (F) in april 2008.
2007 L’Art du théâtre with Lou Castel/created at the T2G (F)
2008 Libido Sciendi / created during the Montpellier Danse Festival (F) / La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris, F) / CDC
de Toulouse (F) / CDC Aquitaine (F) / T2G (F) / Grütli theater in Geneva (CH)/ Ex Ponto Festival in Ljubljana
(Slovenia) / MOT Festival in Skopje (Macedonia)
2008 Inferno of Dante / Grütli theater in Geneva (CH)
2009 Portrait/Portrait / conception and realisation Pascal Rambert and Rachid Ouramdane / T2G (F)
2009 Qu'est-ce que tu vois ? / Text of Marie José Mondzain / T2G (F) / La Force de l'Art 02 at the Grand-Palais,
Paris (F)
2009 Armide / Lully’s opera, musical direction Antoine Plante /with the Mercury Baroque / Wortham Theater
Opera Houston (USA)/ T2G (F)
2010 Une (micro) histoire économique du monde, dansée / created at the T2G (F) Fujimi Cultural Hall Kirari in
Fujimi (Japan)/ in Shizuoka at SPAC-Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (Japan) / Miyasaki at Miyazaki Prefectural
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Art Center theater (Japan) / Le Phénix – Scène nationale de Valenciennes (F) / Théâtre des Salins (F) / Scène
nationale de Cavaillon (F) / CDN Orléans (F)
2010 Knockin’ on heaven's door / created in the frame of Extra 2010 festival at ADC Geneva (CH) / T2G (F)
2011 16 ans / Théâtre de Gennevilliers/ Agora cité de la danse de Montpellier for the Festival Hybrides / CDN
d’Orléans / Préau, CDR de Vire for the Festival ADO
2011 Clôture de l’amour / This text received le Prix du Syndicat de la Critique 2012 « Meilleure création d’une
pièce en langue française » and le Grand Prix de Littérature dramatique 2012
Festival d’Avignon / Théâtre de Gennevilliers / Grütli Genève / / Teatro delle Passioni for festival Vie Scena
Contemporanea / ZKM à Zagreb for world theatre festival / Daehangro Arts Theater for Seoul Performing Arts
Festival / Comédie Scène nationale de Clermont Ferrand / Centre Pompidou (Paris ) / BOZAR theatre et danse
de Bruxelles / Théâtre de Châteauvallon / TAP à Poitiers / TU à Nantes / Grand R à La Roche-sur-Yon / Nouveau
Théâtre d’Angers - CDN Pays de la Loire / Théâtre du Nord à Lille / Scène Nationale de Martigues / Théâtre de la
Manufacture, CDN de Nancy / Théâtre des Célestins à Lyon / L’espace Malraux Scène Nationale de Chambéry et
de la Savoie / Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Scène nationale
Recreation of Clôture de l’Amour in russian at Théâtre d'Art Anton Tchekhov de Moscou, 2012 / in croatian at ZKM
- Zagrebačko Kazalište Mladih, 2012 / in english at Abrons Arts Center for Crossing the Line - French Institute
Alliance Française (FIAF) festival, 2012 / in italian at Teatro delle Passioni, 2012 / in japanese at SPAC of
Shizuoka, Osaka and Tokyo, 2013
2012 50mn / performance created during the Hivernales festival – Avignon 2012 in march 12
2013 Memento mori / creation during the Hivernales festival - Vedène / Manège de Mons for Focus théâtre/fr/
Théâtre de Gennevilliers / Théâtre Daniel Sorano à Toulouse
He is also the director of several short films:
2009 – Premier anniversaire
25 mn – 35 mm
With Kate Moran, Lou Rambert-Preiss, Josette and René Graner
chef opérateur Caroline Champetier
Production : Les Films du Belier
With the support of France 2, and « aide aux programmes du CNC »
With the support of Conseil Régional de Lorraine, the PROCIREP, the lANGOA-AGICOA. Festival de Locarno 2009
Selected at Festival international du film de Locarno – International Short Film Festival Leuven 2009
2007 – Avant que tu reviennes
30min – 35mm
Photography : Sébastien Buchman
Production: Les Films du belier (F), with the support of “aide au programme du CNC” and the PROCIREP
2006 – Début
25min – 35mm
Photography : Yorick Leseaux
Production : Les Films du belier (F), with the support of France 2, CNC COSIP and the Rhône-Alpes region and the
Haute-Savoie department.
Getting the CNC quality price.
Selected at the Vendôme festival, the Locarno festival, the Rome festival and the European movie festival in
Vannes (Price of the city of Vannes), Festival du court in Nice, Paris Cinéma festival, Côté court festival in Pantin
(GNCR price)
2005 – Car Wash
10min – HD
With Kate Moran and Olivier Torres
Photography : Caroline Champetier
Production: Les Films du belier (F), with the support of France 2, the Pays de la Loire region, the delegation for
Plastics Arts.
Selected at the Film de Locarno festival in 2005, the film de Rome festival in 2006
2004 – Quand nous étions punk
15min – 35mm
With Kate Moran and Nicolas Granger
Photography : Caroline Champetier
Production: Les Films du belier (F), with the support of France 2
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]
Selected at the Film de Locarno festival in 2004, Paris Tout Court festival in 2004, Travelling Rennes festival in
2005, Larissa festival in 2005, Nice festival in 2005, Caen festival in 2005, Paris Onze bouge festival in2005, Cork
festival in 2005, Aye Aye festival in Nancy, and Rome festival
Bibliography
Editions Les Solitaires Intempestifs :
1997 De mes propres mains
1997 Race
1998 Long Island,
2000 Asservissement Sexuel Volontaire
2000 Story of Gilgamesh training until the first run in Avignon,
2001Le Début de L’A.
2004 Paradis (Un temps à déplier)
2004 Mon Fantôme (Cantate)
2007 Toute la vie following L’Art du théâtre
2011 Clôture de l’amour
Editions Actes Sud-Papiers :
1988 Le Réveil
1989 Les Parisiens ou l’Eté de la mémoire des abeilles
1992 John & Mary suivi de Les Dialogues,
L’Arche Editeur:
ASV p.r; auto-interview trafiquée en plein air 6204+3
in « LEXI/textes » n°5, 2001
Où le plus grand événement est l’envol d’un coq de bruyère
New auto-interview recorded in Kyoto and Tokyo (Japan) in april 2003
(exemplaire 002) in « LEXI/textes » n°7, 2003
Sur Pascal Rambert
Laurent Goumarre, Rambert en temps réel, 2005,
Ed. Les Solitaires Intempestifs
Nina Santes (dancer)
Nina began her career as a puppeteer. After studying Performing Arts at the University, she joined a dancer training
course in Toulouse and Montpellier. In 2006, she joined the Coline Cie., and dances repertoire pieces and creations
by choreographers such as Odile Duboc, JC Gallotta, Michel Kelemenis... Invited at the 2008/09 TRANSFORM
program as a performer, she meets Mylène Benoit, Olivier Normand, Laurence Pages, with whom she continues to
work to date. She also works with Myriam Gourfink, Catherine Contour, and Helene Cathala. In 2010/11, she
rejoined the TRANSFORM program as a writer, and began Disaster, a choreography and musical co-writing with
Kasper Toeplitz.
Sensitive to interdisciplinarity and to the notion of performance, she develops regularly collaborations with visual
and plastic’s artists, musicians, and fashion‘s world.
Kévin Jean (dancer)
After a Master in prevention and health education through physical activities and sports, he joined the Coline Cie in
2006, in which he followed the formation during two years. In 2009, he joined Odile Duboc’s Cie: A contrejour for
the tour of Uprising and the creation of Dialogue de l’ombre double, unfinished piece. In 2010 he took part in Faim,
creation of Yann Marussich. In 2011, he joined l’Abrupt for the creation of Pleiades and dances in Une lente
Mastication of Myriam Gourfink.
Alongside his work as a performer, Kevin John develops his own work. In 2009-2010, he participates at the
TRANSFORM program, at the Royaumont Foundation (artistic director Myriam Gourfink) and starts creating la
36ème chambre. Early 2012 he began Derrière la porte verte, trio suspended by the arms.
CONTACT production/diffusion : Pauline Roussille
+33 [0] 1 41 32 26 13 / [email protected]