© Myriam Pruvot in collaboration with Pôl Seif
Twisthead
Peau d'Âne is rooted in various European traditions. One of these originates in Geel, Belgium. The relics of Saint Dymphne, the inspiration for the tale and patron saint of “mad people”, can be found there. In the Middle Ages, Geel became a town of pilgrimage for the mentally ill, then a place of free movement governed by the state, and is one of the rare examples of cohabitation between so-called sane and demented subjects. From a documentary and philosophical base on the notion of care, freedom and constraint, this performance opens up a feminist and aesthetic alternative to the original narrative, through fiction and music. By proposing a game of figure chairs, in the sense that the performers will share roles and voices through multiple reversals and twists of power: the fools heal, the girls rule, the kings weep. The musical and literary gesture of the “sung narrative” begun with Un opéra Modeste is continued here, interwoven with the documentary register and a certain desire for farce.
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Concept, text, composition Myriam Pruvot
Collaboration on composition Valérie Leclercq
Collaboration on text and translation Estelle Saignes Tilbury
Set, object and lighting design in progress
Historical and philosophical consultation Isabelle Stengers, Anne Querrien
Interpretation in progress
Credits
Myriam Pruvot
Myriam Pruvot is a multidisciplinary vocal artist. Her work spans visual art and performative installations, drawing, performance, sound art, improvisation, singing and music composition.
Although both of her artistic approach and practice borrow from diverse supports, it is always driven by the question of ‘singing'. Singing rather than “song" - as a usage or function, of those which may also emanate from sources other than that of human culture. For this, she consider field or documentary recordings to have an equal function to her own voice. In return she herself sometimes borrow others' voices, through archive or electronic mimicry.
This horizontal approach and the multiplication of uses of these ‘voices' (acoustic, sequenced, documentary) has led her to juxtapose and to hybridise different musical and sound registers or genres. This way, she combines medieval and glitch music, soundscape and improvised music, drone and/or folk. The affects, textures and reliefs of these singing animate her more than their potential virtuosity.
Reflecting on the circulation between the one who produces and the one who listens, she approaches the creative process through a sonic and feminist perspective re-enacting the radio metaphor of the sender and the receiver as an artistic gesture and a political position.