Les Médusés
A nocturnal choreographic parcours through the greatest sculpture rooms of the Louvre museum, involving 30 performers.
In French, “être Médusé” means literally to be paralysed by stupefaction. It involves the notion of gaze, and is one of the rare verbs to be directly derived from a myth, and in this case the myth of Medusa. The Gorgone can transform, through her eyes, any living being who crosses her into stone. It’s by exploring this dynamic, of where roles of observing and being observed intersect, where the qualities of the living and the petrified are reversed, that Jalet responded to the invitation in 2013 from The Louvre Museum to create a choreographic parcours in the sculpture rooms. On 3 consecutive Friday evenings, these static sculptures were surrounded by 30 dancers and musicians for two hours. Becoming interlopers, middlemen wandering between the world of representation, and that of nocturnal visitors, unleashing the energies contained in the sculptural works – some sitting “still” for thousands of years. This parcours consisted of 9 short pieces, and gathered over 18,000 visitors in three nights. It is the first large scale solo work of Jalet and it was clearly influenced by the physical language of sculpture, which he would develop further in pieces such as Vessel. The “les Medusées” piece became, as well, the basis for the “Volk” dance section of Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 film adaptation “Suspiria”.
Les Medusés premiered on February 2013 at The Louvre Museum, Paris.
Press
The approach of Jalet is sensitive and sensual…”les Médusés” have greatly deserved their place in the Parisian pantheon of the arts.
Philippe Noisette, Les Échos
Magic and enchantment, intuition and reflection… “Les Médusés” is Damien Jalet’s ravishing choreographic itinerary in the Louvre in Paris is impressive
Frankfurter Allgemein
A rare event of ephemeral beauty, this choreographic dialogue between different forms invites to introspection.
Paperblog
Video
Credits
- Choreography : Damien Jalet
- Assistant choreographer : Yasemin Kandemir, Helder Seabra
- Technical director : Willy Cessa
- Dancers : Aimilios Arapoglou, Meytal Blanaru, Navala ‘Niku’ Chaudhari, Vittoria De Ferrari Sapetto, Leif Federico Firnhaber, Damien Fournier, Clara Furey, Alexandra Gilbert, Kazutomi ‘Tsuki’ Kozuki, James O’Hara, Damien Jalet, Jotka Bauwens, Magali Casters, Giada Castioni, Youri De Gussem, Margaux Dufour, Victor Dumont, Cécile Lassonde, Tchi-Ann Liu, Nick Coutsier, Jessica Van Cauteren, Jonas Vandekerckhove, Elizabeth Ward
- Live music : Winter Family, Sofyann ben Youssef, Mahabub Khan, Sattar Khan, Khaled Barghouti
- Costume design : Bernhard Willhelm, Rein Vollenga, undercover/Jun Takahashi, Alexandra Mein
- Photography : Koen Broos, Christian Lartillot
- Production manager : Lies Doms, Marek Pomocki
- Executive producer : Karthika Naïr
- Producer : Eastman, Le Louvre, Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen – AP Hogeschool
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