Jean Dubuffet

With their bodies vacuum-packed into black latex bags borrowed from the world of S&M, the sylphs evoke, by turns, recumbent figures set in stone, cocoons made of some kind of dark-coloured matter or body bags. What unfurls in this piece piece is a perception-based enigma, which deftly slips from ancient statuary into Body Art. This Portrait brings Sylphides back to life, the first mythical piece co-signed by Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud in 2009, performed here in a choral and immersive version.

"Tumer", in Old French, means to dance, stir, or fall backwards. In the company of a collective of singing, dancing, and constantly transforming tumerels, Geoffroy Jourdain and François Chaignaud have concocted a mischievous review. Moving between different eras and genres, from polyphonic singing to variety, it brings this Portrait, and indeed the 2025 edition of the Festival d'Automne, to a close.