A PARTICIPATIVE DANCE PROJECT CREATED TO CONNECT PEOPLE AND GATHER THEM AROUND ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

THE CONCEPT

A textile piece, turning into a costume as it transposes the dancers to a community worrying about the environment, a community fighting for change.

“ Our own cells are symbiotic cells. Two billion years ago some bacteria cells were eaten by the original cells that we are made of, and they are now our mitochondria. Symbiosis is really a successful process on Earth. It’s not competition that is important, but symbiosis, togetherness. “

- Philippe Clerc, lichenologist, Geneva Botanical Gardens

At the beginning …

Labverde, an immersive art program in the Amazon, was created in 2013. Its primary purpose is to gather people from eclectic backgrounds, and support discussion through the discovery of the Amazon rainforest. While the exploration is transdisciplinary, it focuses on its abundant biodiversity.

The experience offered to artists from all around the world is to apprehend the complexity of this unique environment. Whether it is through conferences, hikes or meditation, the program presents a thorough understanding of the complete Amazonian landscape.

Designed for and by artists or scientists, it places one as a humble observer at the center of an unknown environment, trying to bypass a modern perception too often stereotypical. To keep an open mind, charged with respect, is what one can learn from it.

THE PIECE

By observing the colors, structures, and the abilities of lichens on trees, I realized that the symbiosis between mushroom and algae seemed to reflect nature’s fragile balance, and how the natural processes interconnects. Water, essential for this peculiar species to thrive, flows through the cycles of the rainforest. A damaged fishing net, found in the Anavilhanas National Park, was to me part of the same cycles, and become a physical proof of the various flows it went through. By embroidering lichen patterns to repair it and use the topography of the Ducke Reserve as lining pattern, I intend to confront but also gather the different levels of approach to the Amazon problematic.

Designed as a random pattern, the embroidery connects the industrial, the recycled, and the handmade, to find a new meaning for the creations we wear. But how to actually give life to the project, how to make people feel close to what we experienced? I decided to send the project to dancers, hoping it will become the main link of a network, like the confluences of the Amazon, flowing from an artist’s body to another, all around the world. A creation that pass through frontiers, languages, oceans, connecting people to take part in the climate change discussion.

THE DANCERS

An OPEN INVITATION

I invite dancers from all around the world to be part of this project, to bring their culture, vision, sensitivity and empowerment to the cause. The piece is currently traveling from a dancer to another. If you would like to participate, please contact me. This way to see the previous participants.

The Music

To inspire the dancers and give them a glimpse of what we could feel while immersed in Labverde, I have been working with Miki Yui, an artist and musician, who mixed various sounds recorded during the residency.

With her background in fine art, Miki Yui explores the grey zones of our perception and imagination. Her work in music, drawing, installation and performance, have been shown worldwide. Since her first album “Small sounds” in 1999, she has been known for her unique minimalistic and organic approach towards music. From a delicate tiny hiss to a distant hum, electronic sounds and field recordings are woven into music with a narrative tension, she plays sampler, synthesiser and solar oscillators.

http://www.mikiyui.com