the page
corps noir
CORPS NOIR (BLACK BODY)
INSTALLATION-PERFORMANCE
The body is opaque. It hides an inner body, a body in the shadows, a body that feels.In physics, a black body is an object whose electromagnetic spectrum depends solely on its temperature.Stéphanie Fuster’s corps noir is a spectrum. It manifests itself as dissipated heat that increases as she dances.
I imagined Corps noir as a device that reveals the imprint left by body heat. Enclosed in a black monolith, Stéphanie Fuster freezes her dance. Her body appears through contact. The traces it leaves fade away as they cool. Stéphanie Fuster’s body emerges from the blackness, and then is lost in it once more.
Aurélien Bory, march 2016
“ Stéphanie Fuster’s corps noir is a spectrum. It manifests itself as dissipated heat that increases as she dances.”
Aurélien Bory
AURÉLIEN BORY SUSPENDS THE BODY IN SPACE
31 March 2016
As part of a special evening event at the Picasso Museum in Paris, Aurélien Bory has linked the two exhibitions “Picasso. Sculptures” and “Miquel Barcelò, Sol y sombre” with “Corps Noir”, a one-off performance.
Under the majestic scrolls of the Hôtel Salé in Paris, at the foot of the main staircase, Aurélien Bory has set up a black cube. The texture of the walls is reminiscent of an ink pad. Hiding within is Stephanie Fuster, for whom the circus master composed his Flamenco show “Questcequetudeviens?” in 2008 (currently showing again in Montfort as part of the (Des)Illusions festival). Even back then, the pair were exploring the box concept. Almost naked, Stéphanie dances and leaves the imprint of the heat of her body on the translucent walls.
Following a similar process, “Corps Noir” plays on the marks left behind by the body – a conductor of water and heat – on the felt-like walls. The imprint is white on a black background. Like the membrane that swallowed up Kaori Ito in “Plexus”, this one, belonging to the cube nestled at the foot of Hôtel Salé’s staircase, breathes: the sound produced is amplified and resonates through the museum’s corridors. Figurative to begin with, clearly showing the thighs, hip joints, nipple, outline of the face, and shape of the ears, Stéphanie Fuster’s shadow in counterpoint becomes more abstract. Here, only a streak of powder remains; there, a cubist muddle, under the invisible eye of Picasso and Barcelò.
A mechanical arm regularly moves across to wipe the surface clean. Reboot. Aurélien Bory’s work follows the common threads of his research, focusing around a respiratory poem begun in “Plexus”, and in a thought process focusing on the mechanised object, initiated in “Sans Objet”. And what if the body remained suspended in space for a few seconds longer? And what if our stroboscopic retina rested slowly, like a caress, on this image, slowing down and taking the time to savour it a little more? It is during this kind of moment – to which Aurélien Bory holds the key – that we would like to stop everything in order to breathe and to appreciate, finally.
Araso
CASTING
Design, scenography and production Aurélien Bory
With
Stéphanie Fuster
Choregraphy Stéphanie Fuster
Lighting design Arno Veyrat
Sound design Stéphane Ley
Set Pierre Dequivre, Stéphane Chipeaux-Dardé
Automation Stéphane Chipeaux-Dardé, David Puyoou
Stage manager Stéphane Chipeaux-Dardé
Technical director Arno Veyrat
Head of Production Florence Meurisse
Production manager Clément Séguier-Faucher
Logistic manager Justine Cailliau Konkoj
Press Plan Bey Agency
PRODUCTION Compagnie 111 – Aurélien Bory
REHEARSALS La nouvelle Digue – Toulouse
Compagnie 111 – Aurélien Bory is under funding agreement with the Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs Occitanie / French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Region Occitanie / Pyrénées – Méditerranée and the City council of Toulouse. It is supported by the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne.