Benjamin Bertrand
RAFALES
Performance, 30 min
2015

The storm and the gust of wind translate a state of instability of air, a fluid that is common to the interior and the exterior. Rafales (“Gusts”) conducts a work of research on its origin and its undulating movement. Rafales sets the scene for a romantic encounter between the dynamic fluid that is wind, a physical landscape and a couple. Rafales explores the space in the middle, which extends between the first breath that unites and the last breath that separates. This archeological scene could be set inside the maternal womb and on the sand of an ancient arena. The duet, a hermaphroditic creature and a polymorphous couple, sets out on a quest for a common pulsation, its main tools being a belly dance and scansion of breathing. From there, a dialectical landscape emerges between the risk of falling and the fact of being maintained by the other, be- tween breathing and apnea, weightlessness and gravity. Borrowing from ritual form, Rafales explores and exposes states of presence to oneself and to the Other, through the tensing of muscle, the vibration of sound and the rubbing of skin. How does the sensitive experience make the boundaries of this elusive Me-skin porous? How can the organic, perceptive, empathic limits of two interacting bodies be extended? How can the space of the stage reach beyond tensions related to identity to create a shared sensitive terri- tory?

About the artist

Born in 1989 in Paris, France, Benjamin Bertrand lives and works in Paris. Trained in literature and philosophy in khâgne and at the Sorbonne as well as in contemporary dance (Conservatoire des abbesses-Paris), Benjamin Bertrand pursues a career as a dancer and contemporary choreographer. He has performed among others for the choreographer Olivier Dubois in Tragédie et Auguri, the visual artist Jean-Luc Verna, the theatre director Marine Mane, and lately the pop artist Christine & the Queens and the collective (LA) HORDE.

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Performed by Benjamin Bertrand and Eleonore Zurfluh on a musical creation by Florent Colautti. Courtesy: the artist.