Broths/ et autres paysages/ our first solos
Permanent twilight between ruins and acrobatic narratives of our bodies.
We were looking for Caps, personal and collective. That’s how we came up with the idea of creating a space in which to wander around. In it, we stage the meeting of two solos, until they eventually merge. In this way, we create a reunion between our two soloists and an audience of witnesses, immersed in the performance space. We’re in a cabin, a shelter dedicated to enthusiasm, experimentation and the creation of stories.
Maxime Steffan and Basile Herrmann Philippe
April 2023
The initial project was the creation of a workshop by and for young artists wishing to share their practices and their questions, in a space where they could meet and experiment.
The workshops, initiated by Basile Herrmann Philippe and Maxime Steffan, welcomed artists such as Noemi Devaux and Laurane Wuthrich. Out of these spaces/instants has come a kind of writing, the meeting of diverse practices on the stage. We call it Broths / et autres paysages.
For us, putting on a show is a way of reappropriating our circanised bodies and putting them on stage, where performance-documentary becomes fiction.
It’s a way of inviting you, as witnesses and spectators, to take a step aside.
Let’s walk together through the multitude of Stories that have built this fiction. And create your own imaginations from the mosaic we’re displaying at your feet.
Thanks to Fatou Traoré, Antoine Mouton, Tristan Robquin, Sarah Baraka, Noemi Devaux and Fred Hocke for their precious advice.
Creation and performance Maxime Steffan and Basile Herrmann Philippe
Marjolaine Mansot, set and costume design
Félix Philippe, sound creation and stage management
Pierre Piton, choreographic accompaniment
Vincent Focquet, dramaturgy
”With Broths / et autres paysages Maxime Steffan and Basile Herrmann, young circus artists, have invented an ambulatory show, somewhere between acrobatic movements, micro-dance and contemporary art performance. They create two cohabiting solos, made up of dreams, ASMR music and moving spaces: a poetic sharing experience for our times. The bodies reflect a humble practice of circus, free from the straitjacket of risk and exploit.
The spectator moves around freely, choosing there points of view, while constructing their own free interpretation and imaginary world. In this performative agora, they combine contemporary literary extracts with a desire to write between the intimate and the political, in tune with the societal issues of the younger generation.
It’s a hybrid form that’s very much of our time, slow and unsettling our expectations, like a painting in which we’re invited to enter discreetly. This timeless performance gently brings humanity together as a society”.
Jérôme Montchal
Shortlisted project circusnext 2023, project co-financed by the European Union
Coproductions: Equinoxe- scène nationale de Châteauroux// Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde// Coopérative 2 rue 2 cirque //circusnext // Les SUBS – lieu vivant d’expériences artistiques, Lyon
Hosted in residence: Ecole Nationale de cirque de Châtellerault // Cirq’ônflex, platform for circus // Théâtre Mansart, Dijon // Festival du Bitume et des plumes // La Métive, international artist residency // La Transverse // PERPLX (BE) // UP Circus & Performing Arts (BE)
Support from Ville de Besançon, Jeune Théâtre National, SACD/ Processus Cirque, Conseil départemental du Doubs, DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Région Bourgogne Franche-Comté, shortlisted project circusnext 2022-2023, project co-financed by the European Union.
English adaptation in 20 minutes / full capacity
creative notebook october 2020 / april 2023
This encounter is porous to its surroundings, it’s an exhibition of emancipated bodies, free to circulate. Here, our circanised bodies are set free, our individualities coexist, sometimes clashing, and it’s this friction between all the spaces/instants that makes the encounter.
It is destined for presentation.
It is destined to be tested.
It is our magnetism and our bond with the world.
‘’Créer notre vide dans ce monde plein de sens‘’
Silvia Costa
‘’Il s’agit de réimposer au sein d’un monde qui est quasiment condamné à la narration, la puissance non narrative de la poésie ”
Pacôme Thiellement
‘’Mais ce n’est pas moi, ce n’est pas nous qui sommes malades. C’est la transformation progressive et insidieuse de nos manières de vivre, à laquelle nous avons tous, à laquelle nous avons tous, plus ou moins, participé. ‘’
Barbara Stiegler
“C’est décidément d’un monde abîmé qu’il s’agit, et abîmé par des pratiques précises, celles du capitalisme avancé et de ce qu’il fait aux vivants, aux sols, au sentiment même du commun. Et l’enjeu est bien d’inventer des façons de vivre dans ce monde abîmé : ni de sauver (sauvegarder, conserver, réparer, revenir à d’anciens états) ni de survivre, mais de vivre, c’est-à-dire de retenter des habitudes, en coopérant avec toutes sortes de vivants, et en favorisant en tout la vie. Vivre dans ces saccages ou, plus simplement, imaginer des pratiques et les loger dans les interstices du capitalisme, dans ce qu’il permet sans le viser, dans ce qu’il ne sait pas qu’il autorise.”
Marielle Macé
‘’ Si l’autre à un prix, c’est précisément de ne pas être semblable. ‘’
François Bégaudeau
Photo credits: Raynaud Delage / Étienne Faivre