Emillie Gallier

'Papier multiforme' is the rehearsal of half a show. We zoom in to the space of the larger show 'Papier multiforme, Papier comestible' to only see what happens on one side, leaving the other side in darkness. We practice performing lay magic in a choreography of hands and eyes to summon up ghosts: the ghosts of what is not being performed, the ghosts of artists who are gone, and the ghosts of absent audiences. The core of 'Papier multiforme' was developed with magician Tilman Andris drawing on the magic object 'Trouble Wit' used by 19th century magician Felicien Trewey, and on 'Hand Movie' by Yvonne Rainer. In a Kafkaesque atmosphere, black and white, with the absurdity, poetry and humour of Edward Gorey's children stories, this performance cares about attention. We exercise being hosts to receive, touch and be touched by things that are not directly accessible, things we do not explain. We exercise being guests, ghosts, at and around the magician’s table. From absorption to distance, through contemplation, illusions, wanders, levitation, folds, and imaginations, the limited space of the table transforms itself. Space stretches and bends, at times, it levitates. 

‘Papier multiforme’ is performed by Nina Boas and Camille Gerbeau with the lights of Katinka Marac. Together with choreographer Emilie Gallier, they perform and improvise through practices they develop since 2018. The performance and its joined practices are part of Gallier’s artistic PhD research ‘Reading in Performance’ (at Coventry University with the support of THIRD, DAS Research Amsterdam) about movements of reading, documentation in performance, and audience participation. Working from people’s implicatedness with each other’s secret worlds, the worlds of dreams and of imagination, is at the heart of Gallier’s choreographic practice. For over a decade she has looked for unseen movements by using writing and reading as experimental tools in order to learn seeing differently. She wrote scores for the audience to read and she experimented with the sharing of individual expertise in the time of performance (‘Twists in the Body of the Big Spectator’ 2013-15). She designed a book as a performance and she observed the place of expectation in people’s reading (‘sync’ 2012). Through performances, scores, books, articles, lectures, she sculpts immaterial landscapes. Audience members, performers and objects evolve in these choreographic landscapes, they contemplate, and they read (often in the literal sense). Dance in its written and performed forms is Gallier’s main medium that then expands into collaborative fields, for instance: graphic design and magic ('Papier multiforme, Papier comestible' 2019). 

Performance 'Papier multiforme, Papier comestible' created with Tilman Andris and Jamillah Sungkar from 2014 to 2017, and continued with Camille Gerbeau, Nina Boas and Katinka Marac since 2018
Concept and choreography: Emilie Gallier
Composition of the magic performance: Tilman Andris and Emilie Gallier
Magic and paper object illusions: Tilman Andris
Book design and drawings by: Jamillah Sungkar
Dramaturgy: Nicola Unger
Performed by: Camille Gerbeau and Nina Boas
Light and technical support: Katinka Marac
Production: PØST Cie Emilie Gallier
Co-production: Centre for Dance Research Coventry University, DAS Research Amsterdam (THIRD), Festival Regards dansants
With the support of: Perdu (Amsterdam), Weisslich (London), Performance and Philosophy (Ljubjana edition), CLOUD (The Hague) 

Link to the Research Catalogue exhibition about 'Papier multiforme, Papier comestible' >>