EXPERIENCE OF IMMOBILITY

EXPERIENCE OF IMMOBILITY
EXPERIENCE OF IMMOBILITY
Yann Marussich
GLASSED - 2011 LARBRE AUX CLOUS - 2011 LOEUF DU SERPENT - 2011 BAIN BRISE - 2010 EX-PRESSION - 2009 BRISURES - FRAGMENTS 2009 BLEU REMIX - BLUE REMIX 2007 NUIT DE VERRE - 2007 BLESSURE - 2005 TRAVERSEE - 2004 MORSURE - BITE 2004 AUTOPORTRAIT DANS UNE FOURMILIERE - SELF POTRAIT IN A ANTHILL 2003

EXPERIENCE OF IMMOBILITY

For several years Yann Marussich has focused his work on exploring immobility. Through stillness he attempts to capture this state that can almost never be found, except in its most extreme form: death. Physical training and meditation are essentials to attain this extreme control of the body that allows him to stay still for 1 to 5 hours. Immobility is a way to travel through his body from the interior to the exterior showing the deep inside movements (breath, liquids, ...). His approach is a way to reveal the essence of the movement and even the essence of human being, ...were we are all the same. His experiments lead him through deep introspection of the inner movements, which at the same time lead him to push the boundaries of the mind.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1966, Yann Marussich, a unique character in contemporary dance, delivers performances which have a true impact on the audience : scraped, disturbing, provocative, authentic . Since 1989, he signed a score of performances and choreographies diffused all over Europe and the World. From 1993 to 2000 he evolves in the field of artistic programation as director of the Thtre de lUsine (Geneva) where he programs almost exclusively contemporary dance and more specifically new forms of expression. He is the founder of the ADC Studio (Geneva) created in 1993. In 2001, Yann Marussich choreographs Bleu Provisoire, his first completely immobile piece. Since then he has been developing his work in the introspection and the control of immobility, at the same time confronting his body to diverse challenges, or even agressions. This is where the poetic world of the performer exists, in an often violent contrast between his subjected body and an absolute impassiveness

Today he is moving towards solo performance and Body-art. He is close to Body-Art, but in its poetic aspect. His last performances are Autoportrait dans une fourmilire (Self portrait in an anthill) [2003], Morsure (Bite) [2004], Traverse (Crossing) [2004], Blessure (Wound) [2005] and Soif (Thirst [2006], Bleu Remix (Blue Remix) [2007] and Brisures (Fragments) [2009], Ex-Pression [2009], Larbre aux Clous [2011] and Glassed [2011] a collaboration with Carter Tutti, one of the pioneer of industrial music. In 2008, he won the Ars Electronica price in the category Hybrid Art. He is an associate artist at the Thtre du Grtli for the 2010-2011 season. Since 2011, Yann Marussich is supported by the Department of Culture and the Fund for Contemporary Art (FMAC) of the City of Geneva.

GLASSED - 2011 with Carter Tutti ( ex Throbbing Gristle )

Glassed Ecce Homo Ecce In his performances, Yann Marussich embodies a peaceful fakir. He sets his body and mind against aggressive situations head enclosed by broken glass, noose around the neck, ants, snakes or even a nail chair. He keeps still (as in Bleu Remix) until the physical act becomes psychologically damaging. There arent any narrative twists in most of his works as they are about observing a body forced to endure and transform inexorable pain and danger into beauty. From beginning to end everything remains the same: the performers challenge is to absorb the surrounding violence in order to transform it into an aesthetic experience. Nevertheless, Glassed is exceptional as its dramatic art is particularly sensationalised. The plot is quite simple, almost tautological: a huge empty cube progressively discloses danger, operating something that resembles a gradual Ecce Homo movement. Here is a man without a head. Perhaps more precisely a man whose head is quite literally cut by an Elizabethan collar, filled with pieces of glass. The picture is striking. Its here, its now, and its enough. The stage vibrates from an unidentified threat. The point is to enlighten the process of dramatization itself rather than to show the reality of an invulnerable body. This box functions as a curtain going up and down, or as a stage light switched on and off. It is the story of a box unveiling a moment: a state of latent fear and danger. No plot, no transcendence, the situation acts for itself. If Glassed were an Ecce Homo, it would only rely on the Ecce while sound addresses an expression of pain suffered by the spectators body. Michle Pralong Grtli Theatre co-director Co-producer of Glassed

Performance: Yann Marussich Musical composition: Carter Tutti Scenery construction: David Chatel Photos: Gregory Batardon Duration: 1h Coproduction by GR/Thtre du Grtli and the Festival Electron Yann Marussich has a contract with the Cultural departement of the city of Geneva and the Municipal Fund of Contemporary Art.

LARBRE AUX CLOUS - 2011

This seasons Gr associate artist, Yann Marussich, presents its new creation in the festival Archipel. He revisits one of the basic elements of the fakir: the bed of nails. Here reworked (redesigned) by his accomplice manufacturers, as an elegant seat of stems pointing skyward. Accompanied by a percussionist and a singer, evolving in an environment of vertical steel structures, the performer continues his quest to push his body beyond certain limits to find beauty. Hence the return to the pagan ritual of lArbre aux clous, a kind of totem that would absorb the pain. Michle pralong

Performance: Yann Marussich Musical composition: Arturo Corrales Lightings: Michel Gubentif Scenery construction: David Chtel et le Grand Garage du Nord Singer: Christiana Presuti Percussionists: Ada Diop et Marion Fretigny Flight: Jean-Claude Blaser Stage manager: Niet Leang-Srey Photos: Isabelle Meister Production and administration: Perceuse Production Scnes Coproduction GR/Thtre du Grtli and Festival Archipel Duration: 1h With financial support from the Loterie Romande. Yann Marussich has a contract with the Cultural departement of the city of Geneva and the Municipal Fund of Contemporary Art

LOEUF DU SERPENT- 2011

Loeuf du serpent a performance installation, created specially for the first edition of festival Antigel in collaboration with musician Thomas Koner. This particular Festivals goal being to put in contact movement and music, offering unique meeting between artists. After working with snakes on a project with photographer Emmanuel Vason, Yann Marussich continues on this track with this unique experience in the Vivarium de Meyrin, where he meets a boa constrictor. In a terrarium specially made for this occasion a dialogue takes place between human and animal in a deep and penetrating atmosphere.

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Scenery construction: David Chatel Music composition: Thomas Kner Photos: Julie Semoroz Duration: 1h A proposal by Festival Antigel Yann Marussich has a contract with the Cultural departement of the city of Geneva and the Municipal Fund of Contemporary Art

BAIN BRISE - BROKEN BATH 2010

Bain Bris was created for Nycthmre a festival taking place in galleries throughout Geneva in April 2010 Part of his cycle of glass, Bain Bris is an intermediary between Brisures and Glassed , his next creation for march 2011. It was designed especially in the context of galleries, therefor does not require a large technical infrastructure. Bain Bris is the abstract story of a man caught in his bath , he realizes that he is a prisoner of broken glass. He understands that all these bits of broken glass are parts of him ..his own debris prevents it from rising. This is the supernatural attempt of a man trying through listening to music to escape his state of prisoner. It will mean getting rid of 600 kg of broken glass that covers it ... without injury ...
Design and perform: Yann Marussich without music Duration: Flexible Proposal by Ex-Machina Gallery

EX-PRESSION - EX-PRESSION 2009

Ce que qute Yann Marussich a quelque chose voir avec le temps, avec la violence, avec le lcher prise. Puisquil part du matriau, faisons de mme. Yann Marussich interroge la matire pour ce quelle va lui permettre de traverse potique. Ici, une tomate. Seulement une tomate. La posie Prvertienne dune tomate. Elle coule, presse contre un corps cras ; elle saigne. Mais cest un jeu denfant et derrire ce jeu, lartiste joue avec lui-mme. Pourquoi lutilise-t-elle ? Peut-tre pour dplacer notre perception. Nous dire que quelque chose saigne, mais que cest autre chose que ce que lon croit. Autre chose que lvidence, que le premier regard, que la perception naturelle . Serrer ou desserer, compresser lespace vital ou louvrir, dans cette invitation au geste, lartiste nous interroge : que pourrions-nous voir si nous acceptions de regarder autrement. Lorsquil voque sa position physique, Yann Marussich ne dit pas me tenir ou tenir mais tenir mon corps . Dans cette mise distance, il se fait deux. Lui, et son corps. Tte nue / cur-tomate. On pourrait dire la matire et lesprit, menant cahin-caha une vie commune orageuse. La premire mutation, la premire exprience, saccomplit dans ce duel. Le corps corps entre soi et soi, puis soi et lautre,

et enfin entre lautre et chacun des autres. Entre solitude et unit, unicit et multiplicit. Yann Marussich, seul avec lui-mme, son corps et son me, se met face nous. Ainsi, plus il semble senfermer, simposer de la contrainte, plus il cherche sa libert et nous invite le (rece)voir. La performance, non dans le risque quil prend, dans ce quil dessine sur un mur, mais dans ce dplacement auquel il nous convie crment. Cette qute dune autre espace possible, lespace dont parle Artaud, des espaces la vie, des espaces qui ntaient pas et ne semblaient pas devoir trouver place dans lespace. Sa nudit, celle de lenfance, face la pression du monde. Lexpression symbolique de ce quexister peut tre. Tenir, faire quen tout il y ait de luniversalit palpable. Cela peut sembler utopique mais dans son carnet il note : Lutopie est une bonne raison de vivre . Karelle Mnine

Design and perform: Yann Marussich without music Duration: Flexible Proposal by Ex-Machina Gallery

BRISURES - FRAGMENTS 2009

Brisures is the continuation of this work, because the stillness is the source of all movement . Here, the challenge is to research the minimal movement, the more organic, the more natural possible through extreme slowness and improvisation Trying to draw a path undetermined in advance. No premeditation, no choreography, but rather a state of choreography. Here, the body precedes the mind. Nobody knows where is going the slow movement. Neither the performer nor the audience. This journey into the infinitesimal ( infinite minimal), means also to open to the viewer a special timespace. The present time. Forgetting the time. The viewer becomes the actor of a common present. Part of a common experience. More than a performance, its a sharing experience

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Music composition: Daniel Zea Lightings: Michel Guibentif Scenery construction: David Chatel Grand Garage du Nord - Cdric Bach Created at lADC With the support of the City of Geneva, the State of Geneva, la Loterie romande and Pro Helvetia, The Swiss author society, Ernst Goener Foundation

BLEU REMIX - BLUE REMIX 2007

Blue Remix is the sequel to Bleu Provisoire, created in 2001, a performance in which Yann Marussich lets blue liquids seep through his skin thus damaging the interior stir of his body. In letting these invisble movements appear as if by magic, Yann Marussich opens up the path from the interior to the exterior, from the unconscious to the conscious... With Bleu Remix, the performer invites us through a new device to experience a new and intimate voyage through his body. Still searching for the universal man, he takes the essential from Bleu Provisoire, works it, mixes it, and transforms it to shake the senses and better uncover the reality which exists within each one of us. The multiple interior itineraries shown sound and image, reflect a fragmented reality which permits us to create an infinite perception of the body... the body one sees, one feels, one listens to from the inside, the outside, the body deformed by the screen... Here perception is transformed and reality is infinite. A DIFFERENT REMIX EACH TIME

The idea of the remix applies to the sound. In every place, local musicien will take possesion of the original sound of Bleu Provisoire to remix it and create each timpe an unique performance.

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Artistic collaboration and lightings : Daniel Demont Music composition: Clive Jenkins who remixes Yann Gioria Scenery construction : David Chtel Photos: Marc Gremillon Production: Perceuse Productions Scnes With the support of the City of Geneva, la Loterie romande and Pro Helvetia The performance Bleu Remix won

the Ars Electronica price in the category Hybrid Art.

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NUIT DE VERRE - 2007

Nuit de Verre (Version 2) is an adaptation of Verres de Nuit (Version 1) created for the Archipel festival in 2006 in collaboration with percussionist, Anne Cardinaud. From the start, this project was destined to be adjustable, with the possibility of being separated into two autonomous modules. The new version, Nuit de Verre , is composed uniquely of the inferior part: a circular metal plate equiped with a motor emitting vibrations on which Yann Marussich is stretched out. The performer is confronting himself with intense vibrations. He is lying down naked on a glass-covered platform and he must gradually absorb extreme vibrations. He will slowly let them go through his so that they make as little damage to him as possible. Training and concentration are compulsory to avoid heart disease or muscular contractions. The paradox is that to survive, the body must let pass thep seism through him, without fighting without resisting: it must incorporate violence. The vibrations are brought about by the spectator

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Scenery construction: Grand Garage du Nord Cdric Bach and David Chatel Electronic system: Julien Nembrini Technic direction: Daniel Demont Production-administration: Perceuse Productions Scnes With the support of Pro Helvetia

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BLESSURE - 2007

For this performance, the nude artist enclosed islaid on a bed of white feathers; an arrow pierces through his flank. The spectator watches through a loophole. During four hours, Yann Marussich, executes just one movement and sets out on a long voyage between the borders of stillness and movement. In an intense concentration, an extreme slowness, a soft and imperceptible movement, Yann Marussich loses himself between holding back and letting go. With Blessure, Yann Marussich opens spaces and gives time to the spectator to take a journey into the depths of their being. What I am looking for now is precisely what we dont see walking down the street. In other words immobility. The only stillness that we could see is in the dead, but most often they are hidden from us. Death is hidden. As Lo Ferr said : stillness disturbs our century. Y.M.

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Music composition: Daniel Za On a proposal by la Rote Fabrik (Zrich) Co-production TDP Laboratory Poduction

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TRAVERSEE - 2004

The performance is taking place in a big enlighten room and the audience can move freely. Three elements can be seen in the center of the room : a manual a winch, Yann Marussich, and a 10 to 15 meters steel cable linked to the neck. The performer is lying naked, immobile, eyes closed on a starting line. The finishing line lies 10 to 15 meters further. The performance doesnt stop until Yann Marrussich crosses the finishing line. The audience has the possibility to move the manual winch in order to drag the body. The action of the audience gives a sense to the performance. Thus, the audience becomes an actor of the performance. The spectator becomes active as soon as he enters the space, whatever he does. However being active does not mean interacting. The spectator is not gaining any role except the responsibility of his own person, opinion, acts, and even of his own passivity. The audience posseses total freedom. There are no indications to follow at all. There is no censorship. There are only possibilities. .An experience which allows him to explore the movements of our inside world, and thus the limits of the mental. In this process, physical pain is just one level to go trough. The next level is to fight with the white jungle inside ourselves. What is the most difficult is neither strangulation (the work consists in

strengthening the throat muscles), nor immobility (which however requires constant and hard training), but the agitation and the inside preoccupations that you have to let escape without reacting. Indeed, after all it is a huge challenge to fight against impulses of life wich pound in ourselves Y.M.
The performance is in the line of Bleu provisoire (2001) and Autoportrait dans une fourmilire (2003). However this time around, the possibility of intervention of the audience is taken into account. Still based on immobility as a way of expression, Yann Marussich explores the limits of what can be given to see.

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Music composition: Yann Gioria Scenery construction: CdricBach and Martin Rautenstrauch /Grand Garage du Nord Photos: Isabelle Meister Productions and administration: Perceuse Productions Special thanks to Daniel Demont Coproduction: Thtre de lArsenic, Thtre de lUsine. With the support of : Pro-Helvetia, Fondation Suisse pour la Culture, the city of Geneva and the state of Geneva

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MORSURE - BITE 2004

A Man is nude in the middle of a room in which the public circulates. A woman dressed very elegantly approaches, places a record player which she starts up, and then begins biting the nude man. Each bite leaves blue marks. The performances lasts until the whole body is covered with bite marks. Each time the record finishes she pauses, very slowly and puts on another record. The performance can be done with an elderly woman who bites the man, children, several women, etc. (the description doesnt need to appear in the program). It is intended to be a variation on the video performance of Vito Acconci Applications December 70. A woman kissed his torso leaving her lipstick marks. The performance (or perhaps even art in general) is a constant dialogue: with the public, with past artists and with oneself. In this dynamic, I do this performance with a playful sense. But this playfulness is maybe only a mask hiding a certain poetry: the marks left by the woman are at times painful, pleasureful; blue in colour like small skies with teeth.

Conception: Yann Marussich Performers: Yann Marussich / Salom Davoine Administration: Perceuse Productions Photos: Aurlia Marussich Created in Zadar(Croatia) / Zadarsnova Festival le 3rd of August 2004

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AUTOPORTRAIT DANS UNE FOURMILIERE SELF PORTRAIT IN AN ANTHILL 2003

Autoportrait dans une fourmilire, a physical installation, joins up with the continuity of Bleu Provisoire, a performance-manifesto on immobility. The motionless artist is lying down in a glass container measuring 2m x 1m x 0.5m which shelters an anthill. On each side, headphones which diffuse three distinct sound sources are available for use. There are also flat screens on the sides which show close-ups of the artists body and the ants, taken live by four cameras. An Image relay device functionsi automatically. The artist stays in the same position during 5 hours. The research on immobility is based on the fact that all apparent immobility harbours an infinity of movements- the flow of life, the circulation of vital fluids, the heart beat. However extreme immobility does exist in death. The dancer and performer, Yann Marussich, questions this state, or more precisely he approaches this state. So the dance traverses its own limits, shifts towards an installation and is thought of in terms of duration. But here it is still the movement that interests the artist. Death would be a minute temporary fraction of time which leads from one state to another, opening the way to decomposition. Autoportrait dans une fourmilire experiments with this

meeting point between plant, animal and human. In this apparent nothingness life swarms about: the ants which numb the motionless body are not only a metaphor but they also expose themselves. In addition in nature ants actively participate in the decomposition process. Yann Marussich experiments with the approach of death from an organic point of view. He is physically and emotionally invested in this experience. It is about allowing oneself a total abandon, to reach a kind of emptiness of self and to radically let go. This experience is also a way to approach others. Using the mirror effect, the spectator is invited to think about his relationship with death and to feel it. It provokes an intimate relationship linked to our questions about death.

Design and perform: Yann Marussich Music composition: Yann Gioria Scenery construction: Grand Garage du Nord - Cdric Bach, Martin Rautenstrauch - Daniel Demont Consulting: Dr Alain Lenoir; Photo: Isabelle Meister Production: Perceuse Productions Coproduction: Perceuse Productions, La Btie- Festival de Genve, Centre Culturel Suisse de Paris. With the support of the City of Geneva and the state of Geneva

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CONTACTS
PERCEUSE PRODUCTIONS SCENES 8, rue de la Coulouvrenire 1204 Genve +41 (0) 22 321 90 81 Yann Marussich, performer yann@yannmarusich.ch Thuy-San Dinh, manager thuysan@yannmarussich.ch Mobile +41 (0) 78 949 58 43 Julie Semoroz assistant of production and communication julie@yannmarussich.ch

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