Collectif Popmolle | Laboratoire Popmolle
Through the real-time interaction of contemporary dance and digital arts, Laboratoire Popmolle is an immersive and evolving visual and sound performance that explores the expressive possibilities of softness and elasticity. In this innovative proposal, the encounter between disciplinary languages leads not only to a sensitive work, but also to a real structure of collaborative, adaptive and non- hierarchical creation. The notion of “tensegrity”, forged by the thinker and designer Buckminster Fuller in the late 1950s, is a major inspiration here. Like its geodesic domes, we rely, within an innovative robotic structure, on the tensions in presence to find the balance and distribute the decision-making poles over all the parts (disciplines and artists).
Digital creators develop an interactive system between moving bodies, light, sound and robotic scenic structure. The six performers improvise live with the system. Elastic cables anchored to the robotic structure and on the dancers create flexible and constraining spaces in which the performers evolve. These spatial configurations are modulated by videoprojections, a laser system and the actions of the dancers, thus disrupting the spectators’ spatial perceptions. These different types of interaction between bodies and technological scenography transform the stage into a flexible and immersive theatre. Whether it is body movements, algorithmic processes, physical structures on stage or direct control of interactive parameters, performers in both disciplines have the curiosity to deform each other. With this project, the collective aims to soften the perception of time, compress and expand space with light and propose auditory hallucinations that can influence spatial perception.
Members of Collectif Popmolle
Anne-Flore de Rochambeau choreographer, performer
Liliane Moussa choreographer, performer
Marine Rixhon choreographer, performer
Simon Laroche artist, digital arts
Danny Perreault artist, digital arts
Olivier Girouard composer
Manuel Chantre composer and digital artist