Monnier/Figarella: Soapéra

In Soapéra, dance and art are combined in a surprising way. In so doing, the roles are redistributed: art becomes a performer. On an empty stage, a powerful, puzzling shape expands, moves, and changes. A wave is formed, a maelstrom of snowflakes breaks out. Foam, snow, fog? A sculpture made of nothing takes over the space.

Mathilde Monnier understands dance as an inspired interaction with other art forms. Since 1984, she has been developing pieces, performances, and installations together with international artists. She is one of France’s most innovative choreographers and director of Centre National Choreographique in Montpellier. For Soapéra she worked together with the artist Dominique Figarella: his assemblages and mixed media works are complex puzzles that combine painting, objects, projections, and mirrorings.

Shapes appear and disappear, the abstract follows the figurative, chaos follows order. As in a time loop, a painting-in-process emerges in which the stage becomes the studio and the process of creation becomes a magical spectacle. Monnier and Figarella find images for constant change as the only constant of artistic processes: a sensual, playful performance about matter’s capacity to change.