SOAPÉRA, AN INSTALLATION
MATHILDE MONNIER
DOMINIQUE FIGARELLA
© Marc Coudrais
In 2024, Dance Reflections by
Van Cleef & Arpels presents Soapéra, an Installation is by choreographer Mathilde Monnier and painter Dominique Figarella as part of its festival in Japan.
Soapéra, an Installation is a new version of the choreographic piece Soapéra co-created in 2009 by choreographer Mathilde Monnier and painter Dominique Figarella. This version, which attests to their continuing collaboration, is much more plastic and performative. Mathilde Monnier and Dominique Figarella envisioned a transposition of the material—foam—used in the original version: it is now placed at the heart of the performance space. This material transforms into a monumental-scale volume, which forms a moving matter that progressively spreads cross space, remodeling the traditional stage as a white box. The shapes that emerge are not hung up on the walls but handled in real time before disappearing. The performance unfolds with dramatic tension, leading to the moment when the foam has disappeared, leaving only the dancers on stage.
About the artist
Mathilde Monnier
Mathilde Monnier occupies an important place in the landscape of French and international contemporary dance. From one piece to the next, she defies expectations by presenting work that is constantly evolving. Her appointment as head of the Centre Choregraphique National de Montpellier/Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 marked the beginning of a series of collaborations with leading figures from a variety of artistic fields (including Jean-Luc Nancy, Katerine, Christine Angot, La Ribot, and Heiner Goebbels). She has created more than 40 choreographic pieces, which have been presented on major international stages, including at the Festival d’Avignon and the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, as well as in New York, Vienna, Berlin, and London, and has received several prizes (Ministry of Culture prize, SACD Grand Prize). After directing the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, Mathilde Monnier resumed her creative work in 2019, and has since produced several pieces, including Please Please Please (2019), which she created in collaboration with La Ribot & Tiago Rodiguez; Records (2021); and her latest creation, Black Lights (2023). Since 2020, Mathilde Monnier and her company have been in residence at the Halle Tropisme in Montpellier.
© Marc Coudrais
