Dance and drawing trio performance for media libraries, museums and indoor spaces, created in the libraries of Allauch and Aix-en-Provence in January 2025 as part of Lecture par Nature festival, Hydrofolies > here.
Meandering of a river, lines of a drawing, long navy-blue sail used for the set design, meandering of words’ meanings, meandering of dancing thoughts, Méandres reflects on the issues of water as it meanders from glaciers, springs, rocks and rain to the ocean fringe. Water in the body, bodies in water, sinuous gestures of drawing and dance that transform the space, vibrations felt by the audience, piped and polluted water… What control do we have over this vital and universal resource ? How can we talk about remeandering rivers to slow down the current, encourage water absorption and avoid droughts and floods? And calm down our own frenetic pace.
‘We rivers are giants. We criss-cross the entire Earth like immense networks of blood, and our course seems unchanging. We have sculpted landscapes and founded civilisations. How can you imagine that we are so fragile?
‘The word meander comes from the name of a river in south-west Turkey that the ancient Greeks called Meandros. On its arrival in the very wide plain formerly occupied by the sea, where the sediments were gradually deposited, the river meandered freely, drawing many curves. And as all rivers were also river-gods or goddesses, Meandros was one of them, as were the Nile, the Congo, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Amazon, the Ganges, the Mississippi, the Rio Bravo, the Orinoco, the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Po, the Yangtze, the Amur and so many others !
In a tri-frontal or frontal set-up, with a blank wall or a screen at the back of the stage, the performance explores our relationship with water in 7 successive scenes, inviting the audience to join in the discussion afterwards. Inspirational books are on display. Dance-writing workshops are also possible before and after the show.
Gilles Viandier: choreography, performance, set design – Sandrine Julien: choreography, performance – Dominique Lucci: poster, drawings from an overhead projector – Music: Urban Voodoo, Liquid – In Stitches, The Bad Plus – The Coup, MEUTE – Cold Water, Damien Rice
Capacity: 50 – 100 depending on space > 8 x 8 m minimum with projection wall – Duration: 40 min – Young and general public + 4 years old
Coproduced by Promenade d’artiste, Agence régionale du livre en PACA, Lecture par Nature festival, Labo Novo, Reillanne (04) and Pôle 164, Marseille (13).
Selective bibliography : L’eau et la planète, Daniel Zimmer, Éd Ch. Léopold Mayer, 2024 Bleu – Vert, Histoire d’une couleur, Michel Pastoureau, Points, Seuil, 2013 Mouvementements, Écopolitiques de la danse, Emma Bigé, 2023 / Nages libres, Lucas Menget, Équateurs, 2022 / SOS Méditerranée, les écrivains s’engagent, Gallimard, 2022 / Les veines de la Terre, une anthologie des bassins-versants, Wildproject, 2021 / Le murmure de la mer, Hippolyte, Les Arènes, 2024 / / Le Spectateur émancipé, Jacques Rancière, La Fabrique, 2008 / Les formes du visible, une anthologie de la figuration, Philippe Descola, Seuil, 2021 / L’eau et les rêves, Gaston Bachelard, 1942 / L’eau en partage, Le Un hebdo, 20/03/2024 / Nous, les fleuves, catalogue d’exposition du musée des Confluences, Lyon 2022 / Rendre l’eau à la terre, Jean-Baptiste Morizot & Suzanne Husky, Actes Sud, 2024.
Meanderings (Méandres)
Dance and drawing trio performance for media libraries, museums and indoor spaces, created in the libraries of Allauch and Aix-en-Provence in January 2025 as part of Lecture par Nature festival, Hydrofolies > here.
Meandering of a river, lines of a drawing, long navy-blue sail used for the set design, meandering of words’ meanings, meandering of dancing thoughts, Méandres reflects on the issues of water as it meanders from glaciers, springs, rocks and rain to the ocean fringe. Water in the body, bodies in water, sinuous gestures of drawing and dance that transform the space, vibrations felt by the audience, piped and polluted water… What control do we have over this vital and universal resource ? How can we talk about remeandering rivers to slow down the current, encourage water absorption and avoid droughts and floods? And calm down our own frenetic pace.
‘We rivers are giants. We criss-cross the entire Earth like immense networks of blood, and our course seems unchanging. We have sculpted landscapes and founded civilisations. How can you imagine that we are so fragile?
‘The word meander comes from the name of a river in south-west Turkey that the ancient Greeks called Meandros. On its arrival in the very wide plain formerly occupied by the sea, where the sediments were gradually deposited, the river meandered freely, drawing many curves. And as all rivers were also river-gods or goddesses, Meandros was one of them, as were the Nile, the Congo, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Amazon, the Ganges, the Mississippi, the Rio Bravo, the Orinoco, the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Po, the Yangtze, the Amur and so many others !
In a tri-frontal or frontal set-up, with a blank wall or a screen at the back of the stage, the performance explores our relationship with water in 7 successive scenes, inviting the audience to join in the discussion afterwards. Inspirational books are on display. Dance-writing workshops are also possible before and after the show.
Gilles Viandier: choreography, performance, set design – Sandrine Julien: choreography, performance – Dominique Lucci: poster, drawings from an overhead projector – Music: Urban Voodoo, Liquid – In Stitches, The Bad Plus – The Coup, MEUTE – Cold Water, Damien Rice
Capacity: 50 – 100 depending on space > 8 x 8 m minimum with projection wall – Duration: 40 min – Young and general public + 4 years old
Coproduced by Promenade d’artiste, Agence régionale du livre en PACA, Lecture par Nature festival, Labo Novo, Reillanne (04) and Pôle 164, Marseille (13).
Selective bibliography : L’eau et la planète, Daniel Zimmer, Éd Ch. Léopold Mayer, 2024 Bleu – Vert, Histoire d’une couleur, Michel Pastoureau, Points, Seuil, 2013 Mouvementements, Écopolitiques de la danse, Emma Bigé, 2023 / Nages libres, Lucas Menget, Équateurs, 2022 / SOS Méditerranée, les écrivains s’engagent, Gallimard, 2022 / Les veines de la Terre, une anthologie des bassins-versants, Wildproject, 2021 / Le murmure de la mer, Hippolyte, Les Arènes, 2024 / / Le Spectateur émancipé, Jacques Rancière, La Fabrique, 2008 / Les formes du visible, une anthologie de la figuration, Philippe Descola, Seuil, 2021 / L’eau et les rêves, Gaston Bachelard, 1942 / L’eau en partage, Le Un hebdo, 20/03/2024 / Nous, les fleuves, catalogue d’exposition du musée des Confluences, Lyon 2022 / Rendre l’eau à la terre, Jean-Baptiste Morizot & Suzanne Husky, Actes Sud, 2024.