Soapéra, an installation

Soapera is a performative and visual installation based on the use of ephemeral materials such as soap bubbles.

The first image presented to the audience is that of an unblemished, pristine white world that takes shape before our eyes and occupies the entire stage.

An immaterial cosmic space where a form more commonly known as that of a virgin breast, these forms are the beginning of a world, and perhaps even the idea of the origin of the world, immaterial and gaseous...

The dancers gradually activate this perfect form and bring forth ephemeral shapes, like chimeras or phantasmagorias that create imaginary creatures, monsters, apparitions, angels, demons, and ghosts.

Foam sculptures appear and disappear, immersed in a space-time that could be another planet, perhaps the moon.

The piece refers to unknown planets where the air has become fluid and tangible, something you can touch... touch the air!

Soapera takes place in a contemplative and fascinating moment where foam becomes a plastic object manipulated by the dancers.

Soapera gradually evolves as the foam disappears, giving way to a mesmerizing dance.

This magnificent world is gradually evolving into a more complex one where moss becomes a real contemporary space, a kind of landscape polluted and tainted by humans.

This installation is a poetic and dance meditation;

This version is very different from the original show; it is a new form, more radical, more accomplished, which is very contemplative and fascinating in its relationship to time. The foam is a partner in the performance, a central actor in the installation, and the plastic dimension gives it a more contemporary, ghostly, pareidolic feel, allowing us to see ephemeral plastic forms in the convolutions of the foam. The dancers are connected to each other by this membrane and take us on a journey outside of time.

Credits

conception mathilde monnier & dominique figarella

choreography mathilde monnier

visual art dominique figarella

dance yoann demichelis, julien gallée-ferré, thiago granato, jonathan pranlas

stage collaboration annie tolleter

sound olivier renouf

light design éric wurtz

costume realization laurence alquier

coproduction – soapéra, une installation 

centre pompidou - les spectacles vivants / centre chorégraphique national de montpellier languedoc-roussillon

coproduction - soapéra (theater version)

festival montpellier danse 2010 / centre pompidou - les spectacles vivants / festival d’automne - paris / künstlerhaus mousonturm frankfurt et tanzlabor_21 / centre chorégraphique national de montpellier languedoc-roussillon

The MM Company is supported by the DRAC Occitanie

dominique figarella’s piece realised in the frame of “la commande publique du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (direction générale de la création artistique/direction régionale des affaires culturelles du languedoc-roussillon.) 

conception & choreography Mathilde monnier

Mathilde Monnier occupies an important place in the landscape of contemporary dance. As a choreographer and former director of the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, she has created over 50 choreographic pieces which have been performed on the greatest international stages, from the Festival d’Avignon to the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and from New York to Vienna, Berlin, and London. She has also received many awards for her work (Prix ministère de la Culture, Grand Prix SACD Prix Meilleur Spectacle 2023 for Black Lights). Since 2020, her company has been in residence at the Halle Tropisme in Montpellier.

conception dominique figarella

Dominique Figarella is a French artist. He teaches at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

A graduate of Villa Arson, his works are regularly exhibited in France, Europe, and the United States.

He has participated in several group exhibitions in France and Europe and has held solo exhibitions in several cities across France. From 2022 to 2024, his works were exhibited at the Espace d’Art Concret in Mouan-Sartoux, then in the exhibition “Des corps, des écritures” at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris (curated by Odile Burluraux and Anne Dressen), at the Museum of Modern Art in Céret, and most recently in the exhibition “Désordre” from the Antoine de Galbert Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in Lyon.

His work is regularly exhibited at the Galerie Anne Barrault in Paris. His most recent solo exhibition opened there in March 2024.