MYRIAM YATES / THE REHEARSAL + Frédéric Dutertre performance

You are cordially invited to artist Myriam Yates’ talk presenting the video triptych La répétition / Rehearsal until April 22, 2017. The work has never been presented in its three-channel version outside the Cirque du Soleil offices. A remixed one-channel version of the work will be shown in the evening and can be seen in front of the Sporobole building. Following the lecture, a live audio performance by sound artist Frédéric Dutertre, composed from the work’s soundtrack, will be offered.

La répétition / Rehearsal, by Myriam Yates:

“The triptych video La répétition /Rehearsal takes us into one of the three studios in the headquarters of the Cirque du Soleil based in Montréal (Québec, Canada). A team of five elite athletes from Eastern Europe (Russia and Ukrainian) are training for a flying act, adapting their skills to eventually perform in the Cirque du Soleil.

As in many of my works, I am interested in what happens behind the scenes. The costumes and spectacular scenic effects are stripped away so we can examine the efforts, work and emotional states of the athletes during their training.

I try to create a dialogue between the architectural structures of the studio and the body performing its precise movements. The video uses closed-ups of beams and ceilings, sometimes turned upside down to evoke the disorientation that the athletes may feel, almost as if they were in a space ship.”

Photos : Tanya St-Pierre