Maud Blandel

They say a star begins to die when its balance fades and its hydrogen supply is empty. When that happens, it slowly degenerates until – depending on its size – it either violently explodes or its heart collapses. For this piece, French and Swiss choreographer Maud Blandel associates the astrophysics phenomenon of pulsars to the tragic sound memory of the explosion of her father’s heart. By translating physics principles like rotation, gravity, and periodicity, The Naked Eye mobilizes six dancers and transforms the scenic space into an observation spot. What do we really see faced with a degenerating body (be it a star, a human body or a collective body)? More than an autobiographical account, Blandel plays with questions of scale, tragedy and transforms memory into images – showcasing how it persists, as well as its loops and blanks, its shadows and sparks of creativity.

Maud Blandel

Maud Blandel is a dancer who was trained in staging practices (in La Manufacture) and visual arts (in HEAD), and who created her company in 2015 in Lausanne. Her choreographic language is inspired by several artforms, anthropology, cultural studies and music. Her fascination for transformation and musicality led her to create pieces with a strong composition where we can witness the slow degeneration of the phenomena performed on stage. Blandel works on the idea of a sacrificial body and the female body as spectacle through the figure of the cheerleader (TOUCH DOWN, 2015), the folklorization of popular dance (Lignes de conduite, 2018), and the death of time via an 18th century musical entertainment form named Divertimento (Diverti Menti, 2020). She also works as an assistant with artists such as Cindy Van Acker, Karim Bel Kacem, Heiner Goebbels and Romeo Castellucci. Blandel is the resident artist in l’Arsenic (Lausanne) and her work has been produced and promoted by Parallèle (Marseille) since 2016.