Massimo Furlan / Numero23Prod.

Vidéos

https://player.vimeo.com/video/111402324

You can speak, you are an animal

Animal
The project « You can speak, you are an animal » explores the question of animality, of language and idiocy. Both of us have already addressed this question in previous projects such as Palo Alto, Sono qui per l’amore, or in the frame of discussions with specialists of the scientific and artistic fields.
For this new creation, we are interested in the character of the bear, an animal which has been revered since prehistory. Inspiring fear, object of pagan cults until the middle ages, the bear can stand up, like man, and walk on two feet. His stature and power are impressive. He is the totem or even the coat of arms of the warrior, and is claimed as ancestor by certain civilizations. He represents the sexual urge and desire. In the middle ages, the bear was hunted, chassed, eradicated. He was tamed, used in fairs, exposed as a circus animal. He then becomes the fetish object of children, loved and mistreated, the indispensable companion, the stupid mascot, a cartoon character. (see the book by Michel Pastoureau)
What interests us in this animal is precisely the paradoxes and contradictions which characterise it: terrifying, savage and predator on the one hand, tamed, educated and civilized on the other.
The question of the animal was addressed in a fascinating way by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus, with the concept of the « becoming-animal ». It is by studying the work of Kafka that they discovered this lead. Through the question of the metamorphosis: the strangeness, the violence but also the burlesque of men transformed into animals. The question of the animal, and even more so that of the « becoming », of the transformation, the passage, the process, is a central problematic in our work: it concerns the performance and representation.
The concept of becoming opposes the classical notion of imitation – characteristic of theatre – in order to propose something related to action. In the becoming, there is no progression or regression, no evolution. Becoming is closer to the alliance then to filiation. Becoming is never to reproduce. It is a matter of « becoming one with », not to imitate but to compose with, to assemble particles that are « related to » the animal: the skin, the heat, the language, the movement. To operate a plasticity of roles and relations: like a contagion, a contact.
Idiot
In Greek (idios), the idiot is a particular being, unique, without a double.
For the “alienists” of the 1850s, the idiot is the stupid, the epileptic, the insane person. The idiot has no language, he is mute.
For Dostoïevsky, the idiot is the Prince.
For Tristan Tzara, the idiot is the artist.

The idiot, he who’s language is an assemblage of logorrhea, echolalia, and paraphasia, of growls, cries, laughter, gestures, signs, music, is associated – by the alienists and scientists of the 19th century – to the child (who’s language only stabilises at the age of 7, the age of reason), to the savage (extra-European tribes who’s language one does not understand), and to the animal, who’s cries do not form a language.
The idiot is considered as a sleeping being, isolated, who only feels but does not reason, who lies outside of the concept and of form, and remains in pure materiality.
For Darwin, the idiot resembles the monkey, active, grinning, always imitating. Sniffing, indecent, disgusting, singing, inhabited by primitive emotions such as fear and desire.
The question of language is also central to our work: a work made of images, almost without words.
« you can speak, you are an animal »: inversion, paradox, speech as the language of the animal: an other language, sounds more then meaning, made of rhythms, rhymes. Singular, intimate, useless, idiotic.

You can speak
Language is at the heart of civilization, of the definition of human beings as opposed to animals. Nomination, which lies at the centre of Judaeo-Christian culture («In the beginning was the Verb»), is the act through which Adam and Eve take possession of the world which surrounds them. To name, is to make things exists. The child repeats this same experience in the acquisition of language. To observe the world, to observe living beings and to name them. From this instant, things exist, be they present or absent. Language has a foundational power. It imposes an order: a social order among others since speech is not innate, but taught by society, adults, parents.

The acquisition of language by the child goes hand in hand with the formation of the symbol and the construction of the object. Without language exist neither symbol or concept, nore culture, but something raw, formless. Intense. With language appear the questions of the forbidden, of religion, of the law, of politics. The question of the subject and of representation.
Language is imposed, it can not be chosen. To be normal is to speak.

The images (research in progress)

In our work process, we first determine a series of images that have a common coherence either because of the question of narration, either because of the specific meaning of one image in relation to another. The following descriptions are a sort of canvas which serves as a base or guiding thread for the elaboration of the project which, little by little, will be nourished and intensified by our research and then with the actors on set. These images are not final, but open: some will disappear, others will remain, others new ones still will impose them selves.

At this stage, we imagine a set which would look lither like a white cube or be completely empty, with the walls apparent. What we want to do in this project is to be able to work with flows of white smoke, to be able to manipulate them, to displace them, to give them directions, a form, a volume, as a curtain which opens on to an image.
In this work we continue our collaboration with Stéphane Vecchione for the music, and the intense relation between sound and image we have set since several performances.
The same with the lighting. All the scenic work implies for us a strong correlation in between all the elements that constitute an image.

Description
One sees on the stage a young man, fat, with slick hair. He sits on the floor, swinging his body back and forth in a repetitive way, and holding a stuffed bear in his arms. He stairs at the public, he looks like an idiot. He makes strange sounds, has hoarse breath – a kind of incomprehensible language. He looks at his bear and talks to it, makes it move, touches it, hurts it and holds it tight against himself.

Slowly the replica of the stuffed bar come out of dark. This life size mascot stands in the background and observes the young man. The young man disappears, but continues to mumble, in the dark. The mascot has not moved, it is alone on the set and one hears the sentence « You can speak, you are an animal ».

Light fills the set. One sees two young women behind the mascot. They are advancing towards it. They are dressed in pom-pom girls. With satiny shorts, tight t-shirts and fur muffs. Caressing the mascot at first, their gestures become more sensual. The mascot raises its hands towards the sky when it hear the beginning of the song « Hooked on a feeling » by Mark James interpreted by Blue Swede. Follows a choreography between the women and the mascot which moves swiftly. Smoke fills the set. At the end one barely sees anything. Black.

Light come back, with a very low intensity, lighting only one young woman. Facing the public, she does not move. Nothing is happening. Something falls behind her, on the set. It is the idiot’s stuffed bear. She turns around and looks at it, and then turns around completely. She takes her dress off. She is naked, back towards the public, she waits. Suddenly, in front of her emerges the form of a real bear. It advances on her. Black.

The idiot is sitting down. Two women in black stand beside him. One is bent over him. The other remains straight and stares at him. We hear « speak », « speak », formulated as a kind invitation, and again « speak ». The idiot still moving back and forth attempts to formulate sounds, moves his jaws, but not a word comes out. Then the tone changes. More firm. We hear « you can speak », again as an encouragement. But the « you can speak » repeated as an invitation become orders and cries of rage. And finally « You are an animal » is shouted as a sanction. The first women leaves. The second comes closer to the idiot, and raises her arm. The idiot moves backwards. She caresses his hair tenderly all the while looking at him. She leaves.

Three women in black, with very long hair covering their faces and long dresses that touch the ground, stand motionless. We understand that they form a barrier. Behind them, one see the bear moving, from right to left, looking towards the front of the stage but scared to cross.

In the black we hear the sentence « You are an animal ». The light comes on. We see the idiot and the mascot side by side. The idiot is dressed in the same costume as the mascot. But he has no mask, one sees his face. The sequence unfolds in silence. Suddenly the mascot performs some of the moves of the choreography of the song « Hooked on a feeling ». The idiot tries to imitate it. But it is too difficult, he is out of breath. The mascot starts again. The idiot as well, but he does not succeed. The mascot continues and the boy still desperately tries to follow. He reaches his limits, we hear him panting. The mascot looks at him, with his arms dangling. The idiot approaches it, grabs its neck, throws it to the ground and violently strangles it. During the whole scene a sound grows threatening. Once the idiot has finished strangling the mascot and lets its throat go, we hear the song« In our sleep » by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. The idiot exists the scene. Only the mascot is left, motionless on the ground. At the edge of the set appear the bear and the young woman. Face to face. Suddenly the bear climbs on his hind legs, threatening. Black. Again only the mascot is on set. Towards the end of the song, the young girl and the bear appear again, asleep, a book open on their chests. Black.

We see one of the two women in black, sitting, facing the public. Only she is in the light. After a few instants, and in a fraction of a second, the bear suddenly appears to capture her. Their is no longer any light on the woman. At the same time, the light turns on to the other woman, in the same position but at an other end of the set. The light is lit elsewhere still, and we still see the same woman in the same position. The action is repeated five times.

We find again the mascot in the same position as when it was strangled. The set is faintly lit. The two women in black are by his side and look at him. They seam very big (they are on stilts). The mascot starts to move. Something comes out of it slowly. One does not see precisely what it is. This thing crawls, move further away and disappears. One of the women follows it. The other remains and keeps staring at the empty mascot.

The bear is sitting on a small chair, in front of a small table. On the table, a game of scrabble. In front of him, the young woman. They play. The image is only visible for a second.

The two women in black face the public. From the back of the set appears the soul of the mascot (!), it comes from behind one of the woman, and catches her by the throat. The beast pulls the woman by one foot, and pulls her to the other end of the set. The other woman remains standing, facing the public. She smiles.

The idiot is standing, facing the public. The young woman an the bear are visible in the background. The bear is docile, at her side. They approach the idiot. The young woman raises her arm, and caresses gently the cheek of the idiot. We hear « you can speak ». She goes way. The bear remains close to the idiot. The young woman disappears. We hear again the song « Hooked on a feeling ». The idiot starts dancing. He smiles. He dances in a funky style. The bear sits on his behind and applauds the idiot, a bit like an idiot him self.

Distribution:
Music: Stéphane Vecchione
Lighting: Antoine Friderici
Costumes: Karine Dubois
Costumes assistants: Amandine Rutschmann, Laurence Durieux
Makeup: Julie Monot
Sound engineer: Philippe de Rham
Scenography: Serge Perret
With: Elèhn Rion, François Karlen, Sun-Hye Hur, Young Soon Cho, Sophie Guyot, Claire de Ribaupierre, Anne Delahaye, Nicole Seiler, Massimo Furlan, Stéphane Vecchione

Coproduction :
Les Subsistances, Lyon; Arsenic, Lausanne; La Bâtie – Festival de Genève; Dampfzentrale, Berne

Support:
Loterie romande, Etat de Vaud, Pro Helvetia – Fondation suisse pour la culture, Ville de Lausanne, Pour-cent culturel Migros; Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise