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Mirror

Posted 23 June 2016 by admin

Mirror

music theatre

Mirror Mirror / Are you really / An interval of time / Filled with holes?

Mirror is a show about reflections, echos and shadows.

Mirror is about masks and representation, about children dressing up to put on shows – and adults doing the same thing.

Mirror is about time passing, about childhood, about memories and growing old. And about forgetting…

A performer, a musician, a film screen, a slide show of family photos, songs and stories, guitar solos, space travel, Roland Barthes, Plato, Lewis Carroll, interviews… all this weaves together to explore how we see ourselves “through a glass, darkly”. From Lacan’s “mirror phase” through to adulthood, our obsession with our own reflection follows us, up to the moment we no longer recognise ourselves…

Devised by Kate France and Eric Sterenfeld / Texts, video and performance : Kate France / Music : Eric Sterenfeld / Lighting : Jean-Claude Fonkenel / Construction : Dan Bevan / Costumes : Marion Egner

Produced by Ciel56. Production déléguée Le Bateau Feu, Scène Nationale de Dunkerque. Support from Comédie de Béthune, Centre Dramatique National Nord / Pas-de-Calais, and la Compagnie de l’Oiseau Mouche. Thanks to MC93 Bobigny and the Maison des Métallos

Mirror was created in 2013 and is still available on tour in French or English.

Mirror was performed: 8th October 2013 to 11th November 2013, Comédie de Béthune in the programme Itinéraire Bis / 26th, 27th and 28th November 2013, Garage, Théâtre de la compagnie Oiseau-Mouche, Roubaix / 2nd to 7th December 2013 Dunkirk (Bateau Feu hors les murs) / 22nd to 26th July 2015 Gare au Théâtre, Paris Vitry, in the festival « Nous n’irons pas à Avignon. »

click here for video

Inauguration

Posted 22 June 2016 by admin

Inauguration of la Timonerie

As a follow up to the project Êtes-vous Heureux? with the residents of Neptune Grand Large for Dunkerque 2013 Capitale Régionale de la Culture, we organised the opening of the “maison de quartier” La Timonerie. This part of Dunkirk is situated on the former site of the Dunkirk shipyards, which were for many years a thriving and vital part of Dunkirk life. For the opening we projected a film on the outer wall of the building, interviewed ex shipyard workers and trade union activists, and made a performance with a group of local residents based on their texts about the history and changing nature of their neighborhood.

Creative team : Phoebe Dingwall, Kate France, Sylvie Reteuna et Eric Sterenfeld.

Choir of residents: Christelle et Léo Andries, Joêlle David, Diana Dequidt, Laurence Dewintre, Laurie Gawlik, Anne-Sara Koterba, Carole Mathieu.

Texts written by: Christelle et Léo Andries, Alain et Noella Cattiau, Yves Colaert, Joêlle David, Diana Dequidt, Laurence Dewintre, Marcel Ducrocq, Serge Fabre, Laurie Gawlik, Djaé Hassani, Anne-Sara Koterba , Carole et Robin Mathieu dans le cadre de l’atelier d’écriture dirigé par Hervé Leroy.

Testimonies: Jean Barroy et Marcel Ducrocq.

Thanks to Jacques-Olivier Simon and Nelly Miserole for their technical and logistical assistance, to José Wexsten for installing the Box and to the theatre le Bateau Feu for the loan of equipment.

Production : La Sibylle / Administration : Christine Tournecuillert – Conduite Accompagné. / With financial and technical support from l’Aduges and the town of Dunkirk.

The inauguration of the maison de quartier la Timonerie took place on 13th December 2013.

See below the film projected on the wall of the building. Drawings and photos: Phoebe Dingwall, Music : Eric Sterenfeld, Editor : Kate France.

Click to see the film projected on the wall

Finis Terrae

Posted 21 June 2016 by admin

Finis Terrae

a film by Jean Epstein (1929)

cine-concert by Eric Sterenfeld

ciné-concert by Eric Sterenfeld (77 mins)

The story centres on a small group of men harvesting seaweed on a tiny deserted island off the coast of Brittany, During a quarrel one of them, Ambroise, is injured by a shard of glass and the wound becomes infected. He is put in quarantine, but his state is so bad that his colleague Jean Marie decides to take him back to Ouessant. The film’s title is the old Latin name of the region Finistère, where the story is set, and means “End of the Earth”. The film is shot in a documentary-like style, with local non-actors in all roles, and frequent handheld camerawork.

Cinémathèque de Bretagne, Jeudi 20 Octobre 2012

click to see excerpt

Êtes-vous heureux?

Posted 21 June 2016 by admin

Êtes-vous heureux?

Community project with the inhabitants of Neptune Grand Large, Dunkerque, for Dunkerque 2013, Capitale régionale de la culture.

Êtes-vous heureux? was a yearlong community project created with Phoebe Dingwall and Sylvie Reteuna, for Dunkerque 2013 Capitale Régionale de la Culture.

The project was based at a social centre in Neptune Grand Large, an area in Dunkirk on the site of the former shipbuilding yards, which were formerly the heart of Dunkirk. The area was, and still is, in the throes of development; industrial buildings are hollowed out and transformed into sports complexes, public art galleries, and social centres, and new residential blocks spring up every few months.

In this brand new neighborhood, with a heavily symbolically charged past (nearly everybody in Dunkirk had some kind of connection with the shipyards), social cohesion is very embryonic.

Taking our starting point from the seminal film made by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin in 1960, Chronique d’une été, originally entitled Comment vis-tu? (How do you live?), our first action was to go out and find the people who live and work in the sector and ask them: are you happy?

Following this first encounter, 30 people came to be interviewed on their attitude to happiness in a specially constructed booth in the LAAC,(Lieu d’Art et d’Action contemporaine) The interviews were recorded as Phoebe simultaneously drew a portrait of each participant. (Rendez-vous N° 1, la boite à bonheur).

We then developed the material to make an exhibition of films, drawings and photos at the LAAC in April 2013 (Rendez-vous N°2 histoire(s) de bonheur).

The third stage of the project was a walk-through performance with video, live music, paintings and even cooking at the theatre La Piscine in June 2013.(Rendez-vous N°3 Êtes-vous heureux?)

Project devised by : Phoebe Dingwall, Kate France and Sylvie Reteuna

with : residents of Neptune Grand Large, pupils from the secondary schools Van Hecke and Guilleminot, the staff of Dunkirk Central Library, Mr Barroy, children from nursery schools and members of the Savate Boxing Club

Drawings and photos : Phoebe Dingwall / Video : Kate France / Music : Eric Sterenfeld / Lighting and stage management : Jean Claude Fonkenel / Administration : Conduite Accompagné / Christine Tournecouillère / Communication and coordination : Mina de Suremain / with the assistance of the staff ot the LAAC and l’Atelier Culture La Piscine

A project with the company La Sibylle for Dunkerque 2013, Capitale régionale de la culture, in partnership with the Maison de quartier Neptune Grand Large, le Conseil général du Nord, Le LAAC – Lieu d’Art et d’Action Contemporaine and l’Atelier Culture La Piscine.

Régénérescence

Posted 21 June 2016 by admin

Régénérescence(regeneration)

Video mapping and music, Place Stanislas, Nancy. A projet by Paradigme

Régénerescence: Pardigme

Régénérescence was the opening event of the Renaissance festival in Nancy on the 4th May 2013.

A video mapping of 270° was projected on three sides of the Place Stanislas, totally transforming the architecture of one of the world’s most beautiful squares. With live music and performance

Artistic Director : Cédric Bachorz (Diez) / Scenario : Cédric Bachorz (Diez) & David Keller / Video : Cedric Bachorz (Diez), Jérémie Cotta, Cédric Le Dru, Sylvain Riou / Music : Eric Sterenfeld / Production : Anthony Zollo / Technical director : Luc Fachetti / Lighting : Philippe Laurent / Performer: David Keller / Press : Perle Guichenducq / Photos: Christophe Jung (Tauph) / Video captation: Stephane Bennini (clashproduction)

click to see excerpt

Cantique des Quantiques

Posted 20 June 2016 by admin

Cantique des Quantiques

performance with video mapping

“For this performance, it was important to combine the images, sound and performers in different ways, using chance and synchronisation, so that the result was a poetic evocation of the nucleus, the atom in scientific research. I chose the texts because they seemed to me to evoke different imaginary worlds in reaction to Einstein’s incredible discovery, which changed how we read the world. Einstein’s correspondance with Mileva Marić dates from just before the publication of his thesis in 1905, a time when he was still searching for his idea which was, as it happened, just around the corner. The choice of the poem by John Cage, composer and poet, is about the importance he accords to chance, the mirror of intuition and source of discovery. The text by Charles Pennequin, on the other hand, accentuates the place the atom, nuclear research and quantic physics have taken in our imagination and spirit.” Eric Sterenfeld

Music: Eric Sterenfeld / Video mapping : Cedric Bachorz / texts by John Cage, Albert Einstein, Charles Pennequin, and excepts from a Cantique des Quantiques by Sven Ortoli and Jean-Pierre Pharabod / performers: Kate France and Emmanuel Rabita

Cantique des Quantiques was performed in Septembre 2012 at l’Espace culture de l’Université de Lille

read more (LNA article)

click to listen to mesostic age, with the voice of John Cage

Chants d’Amour

Posted 20 June 2016 by admin

Chants d’Amour

film (45 mins)

This project started out with a proposition from Hélène Cancel, director of the theatre Le Bateau Feu in Dunkirk. As the theatre was closed for renovation work, from 2011 to 2013, they had set up a programme where artists worked together with local residents on a series of creative projects. Sylvie Reteuna and I were to work together with a social centre, (la maison de quartier Soubise).

We decided to base our project around love songs, and to make a film. Each participant chose a love song that was particularly important to them, and which was to serve as a base for a filmed sequence. After a period of workshopping, these sequences were filmed in studio and all over Dunkirk. A group of fantastic students from Dunkirk Art school made scenery and props including a mermaid’s tail… The sequences were woven together in the edit with a choral piece, made up of questions about love written by the participants. It was, appropriately, the year of the transit of Venus, which also got into the film.

A project by : Kate France and Sylvie Reteuna / Video : Kate France / Music : Eric Sterenfeld / with: Annick Laignel, Stella Delegorgue, Viviane Géhin, Déborah Fockeu, Murielle Cappelaere, Adolorata Fischetti, Andrée Richet, Dominique Vermeersch, Léon Vermeersch, Christiane Diana, Sandrine Bosman, Paul-Octave Verdun and Auguste-Richard Verdun and the participation of ESA art students Raphaëlle Timarche, Clément Mouteau, Maïté Logez and Morgane Proyart / Administration : Conduite accompagnée, Christine Tournecuillert / Communication : Mina de Suremain

Coproduction: La Sibylle • Le Bateau Feu, Scène nationale de Dunkerque • La Maison de Quartier Soubise, Aduges in partnership with ESA, Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Dunkerque • L’Atelier Culture La Piscine et l’Eglise Réformée de Dunkerque.

Dates of screenings: 16th June 2012, l’Eglise Réformée de Dunkerque, for the Fête des canaux / 25th October 2012, l’ESA, Ecole Supérieure d’Art de Dunkerque / Friday 15th March 2013, Dunkirk Central Library / from the 16th May 2014 for the re-opening of the Bateau-Feu, Scène Nationale de Dunkerque.

click to see excerpt ( DVD available )

Pêcheur d’Islande

Posted 19 June 2016 by admin

Pêcheur d’Islande

a film by Jacques de Baroncelli (1924)

Cine-concert by Eric Sterenfeld and Pushy

« This film by Baroncelli, which is the second (but not the last) adaptation of the famous novel by Pierre Loti, has many cinematographic and documentary qualities which take us beyond the rather conventional storyline.

Pêcheur d’Islande, which was filmed at Paimpol in Brittany, takes us into a world which has now disappeared; whether it be the fishing expeditions of the 1920s, or the landscapes of hedges, paths and fishing villages. Jacques de Baroncelli also manages to slip documentary footage into his film (footage on cod fishing techniques or on Breton weddings taken from Pathé films at the beginning of the 20th century). Some local people even played small parts, their sea-chiselled faces contrasting sharply with the pale Parisian actress (Sandra Milowanof).

Although the prolific director Baroncelli (1881-1951) is generally underrated by critics, in this film he shows a perfect mastery of film language and a real author’s touch at moments. Even if the film does flagrantly overuse superimposition and weather symbolism(!), the passage in the cemetery of Ploubazlanec (with the wall for those who have lost their lives at sea) is stunningly beautiful. Other remarkable sequences include the ghosts appearing to the sailors, the wedding meal or the dead calling out in the heart of the storm. Baroncelli was also well known for choosing and directing his actors, it is the case here with the fine acting by Charles Vanel and Sandra Milowanof.

Eric Sterenfeld, who comes from the alternative rock scene, has composed electronic music for many years. He often works with theatre and film projects, and the spectactors of the Magic Cinema will remember well his cine-concert of Le Bonheur (1934) by Alexandre Medvedkine – which won the acclaim of Chris Marker. We are impatiently looking forward to this new work”.

Tangui Perron

Screenings: 29th January 2010 Magic Cinéma, Bobigny / 16th March 2014 Musée des Beaux Arts , Dunkerque, in the festival Printemps des Poètes

click to see excerpt

Métamorphoses Magic Show

Posted 16 June 2016 by admin

Métamorphoses Magic Show

cabaret/conference based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with additional texts by Michel Serres, Albert Jacquard and Pascal Quignard.

« Nothing / not the thoughts of mortals / nor the shining stars / nor the everlasting night / can understand the strange metamorphorsis.” Pascal Quignard

« All the earth is covered with water / Dolphins swim in the trees / Birds cannot find a branch to perch on / Everything dies / Everything, except for a man and a woman in a little boat / Deucalion and Pyrrah. / The water subsides / There they are just the two of them on the blasted plain / Alone / They would like to make the world live again / They really would like to, but they are not so young. / So they go and see the oracle / And the oracle says / “take your grandmother’s bones / and throw them behind you.” / What does that mean? / They took the oracle’s words / and turn them around inside themselves / “Our grandmother is the earth, and her bones are the stones” / So they take a few stones and throw them over their shoulders / and walk forwards. / The stones in the mud begin to change / and something starts to appear, like an unfinished statue / and then… / like a man, like a woman. / Since then, we are a hard race / and something is missing.”

Devised and adapted by : Kate France and Sylvie Reteuna with the collaboration of Marc Mérigot / Director : Sylvie Reteuna / Performers : Kate France and Marc Mérigot / Design and costumes ; Pierre-André Weitz / Music and sound design : Eric Sterenfeld (except « When I see Mommy I feel like a Mummy » Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band) / Lighting and technical director: Jean-Claude Fonkenel / Video: excerpts from the film Genesis by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou / Sound and stage manager: Pierre-Yves Aplincourt / Construction of the set and props: Florent Gallier, Bertrand Killy and Fabienne Killy / Costumes made by: Nathalie Bègue / Administration: Christine Tournecuillert – Conduite accompagné

Coproduction: La Sibylle (production déléguée), Le Théâtre Bretigny, Scène conventionnée du Val d’Orge, Le Grand Bleu, Etablissement national de production et de diffusion artistique à Lille, Le Vivat, scène conventionnée danse et théâtre d’Armentières / With the participation of: Centre André Malraux, Hazebrouk, Théâtre de Chelles / With the support of: Région Nord Pas-de-Calais / DRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais / Ministère de la culture et de la Communication / thanks to T2G, Théâtre de Gennevilliers and Théâtre de la Bastille for rehearsal spaces.

Tour dates: 14th to 18th November 2011 creation at Scène conventionnée du Val d’Orge, Le Grand Bleu, Etablissement national de production et de diffusion artistique à Lille / 6th December 2011, Vivat, scène conventionnée danse et théâtre d’Armentières / 20th January 2012, Centre André Malraux, Hazebrouk in the Festival Poil à gratter / 30th March 2012, Théâtre de Bretigny / 2nd and 4th April 2012, Théâtre de Chelles.

click to see excerpt

click to see film made to accompany the performance