... If reality did not exist, then literature, dance, theatre and so on would not exist, isn’t that so? It’s above all for that, for its usefulness, that we like reality. It’s from reality that we start but that stops there. A sort of root on the surface allowing us to descend into our caves, tunnels, basements, maze-like at times, blind alleys at others, dead ends. Dead end indeed, maybe there, what you are going to see. Mathilde asked herself “what is the inner state of a being?” What do we do with this kind of question? The inner state of a being cannot be communicated. At the outset she asked herself “is it the confinement that fascinates me so much?” We changed subject, fearing the journalists’ questions, wishing to cut it short. We changed subject a number of times, we skipped from subject to subject, before finally choosing “stop barking you filthy dogs”. Because the inner state of beings is just that. The confined state of beings is that: Things inside you and around you that bark. Things that bark through you. That scream or wail or that are there. We have taken as subject the things that are there. In our head, what we hear, that are there. Those things that sometimes we ourselves bark out. All those sentences. That are there. In silence, in our head, that pass, even the deaf must hear them. We don’t know. Precisely, we don’t know what is confined inside beings. All those sentences, even when you watch a show, or at night. Like a cat, it doesn’t linger, it leaps very quickly from one thing to another, it always returns obsessively to more or less the same spots. It marks pauses. Or not, sometimes it doesn’t come back. Like a cat, the body each time that stands still and the gaze too, to quickly move to a higher branch. A lower branch, or a cupboard. Without ever hurting itself, that’s it…

Source: Christine Angot. June 1997

Mathilde Monnier holds a reference position in the French and international contemporary dance landscape. Her creations continuously defy expectations thanks to constant renewal. Her nomination as director of the Centre Chorégraphique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 has initiated a series of collaborations with people coming from different artistic domains. From artist Beverly Semmes to philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy from film director Claire Denis, Mathilde Monnier has always pushed the boundaries of a work she sees as an experience above all. Musical creation holds an important position with very varied collaborations within the fields of popular as well as scholarly music - jazz musician Louis Sclavis, composers David Moss and Heiner Goebbels, virtuoso platinist eriKm. More recently, she has used PJ Harvey's rock music but also the pink pop settings 2008 vallée, the show she co-created with singer Philippe Katerine. It came to a glorious end in the Main Courtyard at the 2008 Avignon festival. Fascinated by the concept of unison, she created the pastoral Tempo 76 show at the Montpellier Danse 07 festival on Gyôrgy Ligeti's music. In february 2008 she was commissionned by the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle to choreograph Heiner Goebbels opera, Surrogate Cities. More than 130 amateurs went on stage to take part to an opera dealing with the city and the power struggle within. The same year, she presented the burlesque duet Gustavia in which she appeared along with spanish performance artist La Ribot at the Montpellier Danse 08 festival. In 2009, she created Pavlova 3'23'', in reference to the classical ballet The Death of The Swan. In 2010, working in close collaboration with visual artist Dominique Figarella, Mathilde Monnier created the show Soapéra, and subsequently paid homage to Merce Cunningham by way of the show Un américain à paris. In 2011, together with choreographer Loïc Touzé and writer Tanguy Viel, Mathilde Monnier created Nos images, a work focusing on film. Together with Jean-François Duroure, she restaged Pudique acide / Extasis at the Festival Montpellier Danse 11, two duos that the choreographers created in 1984 and 1985.

Source : Mathilde Monnier 

En savoir plus : www.mathildemonnier.com 

Back in 1987, after having completed her studies at the Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière, Valérie Urréa began asserting her passion for visual and performing arts. Documentaries, live recordings, fictions, from 'Bruit Blanc' to 'L’Homme qui Danse', all of Valerie Urréa’s films, which are principally coproduced by ARTE, explore highly-sensitive themes such as autism, masculinity and issues concerning race, through artistic visions. Her multiple award-winning films are regularly presented in international festivals. She was guest-artist twice for the Commission Image Mouvement de la Délégation des Arts Plastiques (Image/Movement Commission of the French Visual Arts Delegation). At the same time, she was a teacher for several years at the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels (ESAV - Higher Institute for Visual Arts) in Marrakech, specializing in the relationships between images and performing arts. 

Source : Valérie Urréa