Wall Dancin’/Wall Fuckin’

A large stage parted by a wall. Two people, each in his/her space, linked to each other by that which keeps them apart: a wall.
An erected wall, what does that call to mind? A limitation, a separation, a frontier, a symbol (phallic of course), a habitat, a minimalist sculpture or maybe, in a more simple but no less strange way, an object which one would consider as a membrane – together moving and organic, frozen in its immobility, but porous through what will become of it? The wall: as a partition, it is also part of a structure dedicated to its own downfall. Let everything go to its own downfall? Let’s keep, for the time being, this last proposition, it will enable us 

to play with various temporalities, to preserve the space while modifying it, while altering it. It’s the theater as a place which is questioned, its frame and its conditions of admittance, and thus of the expectations connected to the artistic styles it welcomes (this time, dance: wall dancin’). Namely, the opacity of the wall will right away put a limit to the scope of the vision, whatever it may be, until it is confiscated, according to where the spectator is seated. One cannot question the singular space occupied by the spectator without touching on the naive belief in the democratic virtues of the contemporary architecture of our theaters: always a blind spot, always an obstacle. Shall we throw out the seats? To quote Samuel Beckett from memory: “Space does not separate the bodies, but bodies do separate space.” To engage in a temporal distortion, we use, other than the effects of shift produced by the video device and the repetition of some propositions, images filmed outside the stage; some of these situations are acted again on the stage, treated until they are dissolved, indeed destroyed. In strata, movement is broken up 

as a piece of music is sampled. Such an action (eat, shake, etc.) identical at first is biaised little by little, as if transfigured. Here, it’s the construction of the look that the spectator bears upon the movement, and the occurrences of thought it brings about which are important. What are we looking at, what are we waiting for? Or should we say: what is looking at us? 

A wall, as an architectural element, is one foundation of the systems which produce social, cultural and sexual (wall fuckin’) values, and which is only worth what it shelters or re-des-cover. The concern being to undermine this authority through displacement, repetition or disappearance. Or, through obsessional hints, to cause the appearance of the quest of two human beings living together while apart. Separated by a membrane, a skin, or by a wall; apart, but also reunited. The question is put: how can we (still) be together, how can we (sometimes) dance together. 

Alain Buffard [November 2002] 

A wall separates the stage into two identical spaces. Two film projections. Two solo performances which interact with the image. Régine Chopinot and Alain Buffard experiment with a concept, “Wall Dancin’ Wall Fuckin’”, based on a well-known trend, that of postmodernity and visual arts. It starts with a film which speaks about intimacy, food and consumption, eroticism and sex. About the body and fashion. Using alternated sequences, the image plays with stops, accelerations and shifts. A technique using humour, always held back, but which sometimes skirts around the edges of obscenity. Then the rhythm accelerates, accompanied by soft and serious sounds, chanting a kind of orgasm of the materials. The same technique moves the dancers, with the image and on the stage. A little bit dirty, a little bit funny. With a quirky state of mind, unaffected, but always full of elegance.

Since the 1980s, Régine Chopinot has preserved the vitality of her method while avoiding the establishment of any identity. She constantly changes and renews her approach to choreography, but never how you expect.

Irène Filiberti (sources: programme by Vidéodanse, Paris, 2009 and programme from the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, April 2002)