Performanceplan D

La Grotte

Pol Pi

Pol Pi, La Grotte © Camille Graule
Pol Pi, La Grotte © Camille Graule

10 & 11.04.26

Palais de Tokyo

La grotte (The Cave) Inspired by several immersions in the prehistoric Combarelles cave in Dordogne, Pol Pi's latest piece explores the transformations of the body and perception when faced with an environment that acts, resonates, and shifts reference points to open up a whole field of new experiences. In these depths, where time slows down, attention sharpens and listening expands. The physical contact with stone, humidity, darkness, and millennia-old engravings, makes the body undergo a metamorphosis. Inspired by the self-induced cognitive trance method developed by Corine Sombrun, Pol Pi experimented with states of trance, allowing the body to react to the forces of the place, becoming both sensor and receptacle. From these physical and sensory experiences, a dance emerges, full of reminiscences and latent images, a space of circulation between the visible and the invisible, between the human and the non-human. Pol Pi takes us on a descent that becomes an inner journey, towards darkness, where sight gives way to listening, and where other forms of attention to the place, to the elements, and to the links between the body and its environment are experienced.

Pol Pi

Born in Brazil and now based in France, Pol Pi develops an approach to choreography centered on memory, open to the sensory and political dimensions of the body. His work explores dance as a practice of listening and relating, always in dialogue with other disciplines and communities. He is currently developing projects in which research, creation, and transmission feed into each other. By promoting encounters and the circulation of knowledge, he is currently exploring how dance can be part of reality, at the crossroads of art, care, and social practices.

Production
NO DRAMA

Executive production
Latitudes Prod — Lille

Co-production
La Briqueterie - CDCN du Val-de-Marne, Latitudes Contemporaines

Writing residency
Les Grandes Fenêtres, a place for meeting, creation, experimentation and interdisciplinary research based at Villa les Roses, Excideuil, Dordogne Périgord Vert.

The first stage of work on the cave was produced by the "Mondes nouveaux" programme implemented by the Ministry of Culture as part of France Relance.

Special thanks
Marc Martinez and Monique Veyret (administrator and guide at the Combarelles Cave), Diane Blondeau for the sound creation during the 2022 stage, and Baptiste Chatel for his sound engineering advice.