Cavern

Cavern, a film by Louise Hémon with Alix Eynaudi and Matthieu Barbin, will be on view on lafayetteanticipation.com from Friday, April 1, 2016. It is the fifth episode of the “Mutant Stage” choreographic film series.

The “Mutant Stage” project
“Mutant Stage” is a series of choreographed short films produced by Lafayette Anticipation – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette during the renovation of its building between 2015 and 2017. Four films have already been produced; they were directed respectively by Wendy Morgan, Elen Usdin, Benjamin Millepied and Olga Dukhovnaya & Konstantin Lipatov, with dancers such as Amalia Alba, Florence Casanave, Lisa Miramond, Annabelle Pirlot, Jung-Ae Kim, Volmir Cordeiro and Pauline Simon.

Throughout the renovation conducted by OMA and Rem Koolhaas, and until the public opening of the Fondation in 2017, the building at 9 rue du Plâtre will be the object of an investigation into its own mutation as the evolving architecture is measured over the months by in situ encounters of directors and performers. Initiated by the Fondation with the curators Amélie Couillaud and Dimitri Chamblas, each shoot is the opportunity for a different encounter that sets bodies and matter into motion, animating the changing building. “Mutant Stage” is in conjunction with a program of emerging performance scenes in contemporary dance by Lafayette Anticipation.

Thus “Mutant Stage” pulses both within the building and beyond into the centre of the city. The title of the project is inspired by a Rem Koolhaas expression that encapsulates the essence of 9 rue du Plâtre performative architecture and the commitment of the institution to the hybridisation of art and life. Each film in the collection, shaped by the visual vocabulary of dance, cinema and architecture, is a singular object, existing in multiple fields at once. In this way, the renovation site remains a space for invitation and experimentation, a building in motion.

“Mutant Stage” 5: Cavern
For the fifth film in the series, the dancers Alix Eynaudi and Matthieu Barbin meander through the renovation site. Louise Hémon treats the construction site as a character, a place of expedition, surveyed by the couple of dancers. Landforms, gaps, contours and holes, reveal in snatches, an organic, ever changing space. The exploring-dancers roam through it, saying nothing of their purpose. Their bodies become one with it, outlined by the rustle of their plastic capes. Breaths overlap, footsteps fit together, clatters ring out, shapes echo. This breakthrough towards a mysterious initiation is accompanied by percussion that seems to answer the roaring rubble. At the end of the journey, everything remains suspended on the edge of the future building to come. The images evaporate between cold and heat; sound vanishes with a last breath. Because it is both the fifth link in the “Mutant Stage” collection and a work in itself, the film is subtitled Cavern, highlighting the evocative power of its ephemeral setting that will have disappeared by the next episode.

About Lafayette Anticipation 
Founded in October 2013 by the Galeries Lafayette Group, Lafayette Anticipation - Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette will open its doors in 2017, 9 rue du Plâtre in Paris. The Fondation fits into the local scene of the Marais district, as well as in a context of its international cooperation. This public interest foundation aims to support contemporary artists and creative work in general. This new institution is also open to design and fashion, recognising the unique minds of all creatives in their ability to not only participate in social change, but also anticipate it.

Lafayette Anticipation is structured around its production activity. It is the first multidisciplinary centre of its kind in France. As a place of experimentation and fundamental research, it offers artists, creatives, designers and performers unique conditions and tools for developing prototypes, implementing projects and taking their work in new directions. In addition to exhibitions, a variety of transmission forums give tangibility to the creative process and facilitate exchanges between artists and the public, making the Fondation a place of production, reception and active sharing. Lafayette Anticipation also supports contemporary creation thanks to the Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, which develops actions to endorse artistic projects of general interest while pursuing a policy of acquisition and loans and by enhancing its collection since its creation in 2013.

Having occupied 9 rue du Plâtre prior to the refurbishment (from October 2013 to July 2014), the Fondation moved into a temporary space adjoining the building site, from which it will continue to run a large number of projects until the new building opens, working in close collaboration with partners such as the Centre Pompidou, Performa, Kunsthalle Basel, MoMA PS1 or the New Museum. In this pre-launch context, now more than ever, the Lafayette Anticipation’s program presents itself as a vehicle for forms and thoughts that test the evolving institution’s scale of action.