Les murmures des Poullo

« Right from the start, I wished to deal with the theme of femininity and stage it in this place by itself a symbol of a female world. Besides it’s made of stone, composed of three deep sinks where the water from the Poullo fountain still flows in, this wash house has a major feature, it’s an arena-like open place. This aspect was determining as to the relation to the public who could have glimpses of the piece in progress. The spectators sitting on the low stone walls, looked at our work down below, asked questions, brought back images of the past. I used the stone, the contours, the water…The whole research of movements was inspired by the wash house. I had in mind the ‘Causeuses’ by Camille Claudel, then her male counterpart, Rodin. Their sculptures have always fascinated me. Both fragile and powerful. I took a lot of my inspiration from their world. I imagined ghosts, old spectral talks, old secrets springing from the stones, circulating along the sinks, floating on the water…Tender, abandoned, fighting, etc. I tried to picture different faces of femininity, making each moment sacred, as in a strange ritual.

Maricke Forini, one of the singers-dancers was 6-month pregnant at the time of the dance, a godsend as to the theme, the opportunity to stage such a particular body, a little rounder rehearsal after rehearsal.
Eric Delpech’s role was somewhat apart in the show. To me it evoked one of the aspects of man’s condition: he that grows in his mother’s womb and that later gives birth. I remembered Michel Onfray’s statement: “All the bodies, male and female, proceed from this primitive immersion in the womb of a woman”.
Maricke’s state conjured up the link, the communion between man and woman.
For this project, I didn’t want to alter the place with technical installations. Only the voices went up with no artifice, the lapping of the water, the rubbing on the ground and the stones that gave an eerie feeling of silence, of time hanging up.”

Gaëlle COURTET