duration : 210'
this performance relies on an extended experience
possibility of taking breaks
Is a man a monkey to another man? How do two human figures play monkeys who play humans for humans? In the beginning of the 20th century, chimpanzees Consul and Meshie lived like human beings, with human beings, and ended up considering themselves as such. Antonia Baehr and Latifa Laâbissi put on their simian identities to create a canvas which they hold up to us like a mirror, where the past communicates with the present and the future. Intensely hairy, impertinent and shameless, they live inside a set designed by Nadia Lauro, reminiscent of the quilted and bronze-coloured interior of a limousine. Consul and Meshie embody hybrid figures who address the violence of assignations and smash to smithereens distinctions such as nature-culture, man-woman, the self-the other.
conception, performance: Latifa Laâbissi, Antonia Baehr / visual installation: Nadia Lauro / costumes: Antonia Baehr, Latifa Laâbissi, Nadia Lauro / sound, light: Carola Caggiano / management, diffusion: Alexandra Wellensiek (make up productions), Fanny Virelizier et Charlotte Cancé (Figure Project) / conception of «French Theory Memory»: Hilà Lahav / production: Figure Project, make up productions / coproduction: HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Le Magasin des horizons Grenoble, Xing Live Arts Week VII Bologne / soupport: Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa Berlin / thanks: VINCIANE DESPRET, DONNA HARAWAY, LES LABORATOIRES D’AUBERVILLIERS, MELANIE POPPE, RAYNA RAPP, CONSTANZE SCHELLOW, EMILIA ET KATHRIN SCHLOSSER, MIA SELLMANN, L’ÉQUIPE DU HAU HEBBEL AM UFER, JEAN-YVES ET DANIELLE AUVRAY