EVERYDAY VIOLENCE
THE THEATER MASK. THE NEW NEUTRAL.
THE MASK ON THE FACE OF THE CITIZEN IN DAILY WARS AGAINST OPPRESSION, THAT OMNIPOTENT,. EVERY DAY WE SUFFER VIOLENCE, EVERY DAY THE BODY IS CAST DOWN AS THE DEFAMATION OF FORM, THE INSTRUMENT
AND THE ENCUMBRANCE, A BLOODY AND VISCERAL DANCE.
A BODY WITHOUT IDENTITY IN AN ENDLESS SCENE, THE AGORIC PARRY, A LIFE SPENT FRAMED BY NOISE, HUB-BUB,
ASSUNDER.
The body that dances in the performance is a reflection of suffering, castration of the printed system in contagious movements, viruses, labor work, war training, political speeches, utopians, aquatic underworld of bubbles and atoms, with bloody explosions and states energy of liberation of the being. The anonymity of the covered face is the challenge for the performer to dance without seeing on stage. It brings the risk of resistance, in dialogue with the projections in the fund during the performance. The choice for low theatrical lighting is to emphasize the projected video that automatically illuminates the performer's body, dialoguing with a confused, dense and technological atmosphere.
Created in collaboration with choregrapher Luan Machado (Paris Blues), Everyday Violence is a multi-channel audio / dance performance commissioned for the En Chair Et En Son festival in Paris. Originally created for Francois Bayles 'Acousmonium' speaker array, the piece explored the lived experience of the modern world - the thousands of minor attacks that are inflicted upon the contemporary citizen. From the more obvious incursions of sexism and racism to the more mundane cultural and economic wounds that we all carry, the work offered an abstract response to the burden of the contemporary self, using the dance medium to underscore the endless turmoil of our lives.
Created using both a custom granular synthesis chain and python-coded visuals, alongside Machado's evocative, abstract choreography, Everyday Violence replicates the repetitive, angular affront of its theme, wielding fractured, cascading synthesis and abstract visual forms. Live electro-acoustic triggers mirror and invert the movements of the dancing body, creating a physical, tactile performance of electronic signals set against a backdrop of abstract rhythms and pulsating drones. Ambient swells and sudden bursts of processed artifacts - clouds of distortion and bit-crushed tones - punctuate a constantly evolving soundscape, a living terrain of synthetic and organic sounds, the electric and the acoustic in constant tension. Gentle strings and horns seep through a granulated, fragmented prism, completing a work that draws equally on minimalism, contemporary classical, drone, synthesis, and musique concrete.
Everyday Violence has been performed in the Netherlands, France, and Italy, and has devolved to incorporate a live score performed by Distant Animals, utilizing electro-acoustic instruments and granular synthesis techniiques.
