Lost in Burqa (2011)

(création 2011)

Conception Héla Fattoumi/Éric Lamoureux Based from the works of Majida Khattari

Performers Matthieu Bajolet, Marine Chesnais, Anaïs Dumaine, Mélanie Giffard, Sandrine Kolassa, Philippe Rouaire, Pierre-Emmanuel Sorignet, Moustapha Ziane Sound Engineer Éric Lamoureux Lighting design and scenography Xavier Lazarini Dresser Yolaine Guais Production Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen/Basse-Normandie Coproduction école supérieure d’arts & médias de Caen

With Lost in burqa, the choreographers Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux appropriate visual artist Majida Khattari’s «garnment-sculptures», unique works which redefine and displace the burka, niqab or safsari, this continuing Fattoumi and Lamoureux’s exploration of the representation of the viel, initiated in their solo Manta.Wearing them as textile sculptures in motion, and guided by the poetic potential of each garment, the performers tackle – in unsettling and un expected movement – the symbolic and imagined connotations of the hijab, this sometimes-imposed item of attire whose primary nature stems from «to remove from view or isolate a body or object». Lost in burqa takes on an unaccustomed relationship with the audience, who surround the performance, hiding it from view, framing it.