Gaëlle Bourges OVTR (ON VA TOUT RENDRE)
[Dance]
With the restitution of stolen works of art a current-day topic, Gaëlle Bourges turns our attention towards an intra-European case: that of the Acropolis caryatids in Athens, and their missing statue, placed in the collections of the British Museum in London.
Legend says that her five Athenian sisters languish over. At the start of the XIXth century, the Scottish aristocrat Thomas Bruce, better known as Lord Elgin, ordered one of the Acropolis caryatids to be sawn off and sent to London, along with sixty percent of the Parthenon frieze. These stolen treasures from Antiquity are still on display at the British Museum, despite the demands from Greece for them to be returned. With the restoration of works pillaged during the colonial era to the African continent becoming the object of a first law in 2020, OVTR (ON VA TOUT RENDRE) gives life to the lost statue of the Acropolis and invites us to follow its symbolic journey, from Athens to London. With the aid of letters and texts from the time, Gaëlle Bourges examines the intricacies and grey areas of a section of art history which put antique art on a pedestal – but also authorised its appropriation by more powerful countries. This piece prompts us to cast a critical eye on our representations, and implicitly asks the quesion : what if we gave it all back ?
Credits
Concept and writing, Gaëlle Bourges
With Gaëlle Bourges, Agnès Butet, Gaspard Delanoë, Camille Gerbeau, Pauline Tremblay, Alice Roland, Marco Villari, and Stéphane Monteiro a.k.a XtroniK (musique live)
Using letters written by Lord Elgin, Giovanni Battista Lusieri, Reverend Philip Hunt, Mary Elgin, and François-René de Chateaubriand, and extracts of speeches by Melina Mercouri, Neil Mac Gregor, and Emmanuel Macron
Translation of letters written in English, Gaëlle Bourges, with the help of Alice Roland and Gaspard Delanoë
Lighting, Alice Dussart
Music, Stéphane Monteiro a.k.a XtroniK and The Beatles, David Bowie, Kate Bush, The Clash, The Cure, Marika Papagika & The Sex Pistols
Singing, the performers
Headdresses for the caryatids, moulds, sewing, and gilding by, Anne Dessertine
In association with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris and Festival d’Automne à Paris.
A coproduction by Dispositif « la Danse en grande forme » (Centre National de Danse Contemporaine – Angers – ACCN ; Malandain Ballet Biarritz – ACCN ; La Manufacture – CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux La Rochelle ; CCN de Caen en Normandie ; L’échangeur – CDCN – Hauts-de-France (Château-Thierry) ; CCN de Nantes ; CCN d’Orléans ; Atelier de Paris / CDCN ; Musée de la danse – Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne ; Le Gymnase | CDCN Roubaix ; Pôle-Sud, CDCN de Strasbourg ; La Place de la Danse – CDCN Toulouse / Occitanie) ; Théâtre de la Ville-Paris ; TANDEM, scène nationale (Douai-Arras) ; L’échangeur – CDCN – Hauts-de-France (Château-Thierry) ; Maison de la Culture d’Amiens – pôle européen de création et de production ; Le Trident – Scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin ; and L’Onde Théâtre Centre d’Art / Vélizy-Villacoublay
In association with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from the Ministère de la Culture, DRAC Île-de-France as part of a scheme to assist companies, Région Île-de-France as part of the Permanence artistique et culturelle program, and Ménagerie de Verre as part of the Studiolab initiative
Residency support at CND Centre national de la danse (Pantin)
With thanks to Christian Vidal for the trip to Greece, Ludovic Rivière for the fine-tuning of the British pop-punk-rock, and Bernard Tran for the video recording.
Os support from DRAC Île-de-France – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication ; Région Île-de-France and by Département de l'Essonne.
