La Fabrique John Cage & Merce Cunningham

For this new edition of La Fabrique, the CN D took its inspiration from the lack in the homage paid to Merce Cunningham: the essential place, alongside the American choreographer, of the composer John Cage, who was the musical director of his company until his death in 1992. More than an artistic collaboration, the relationship between these two major figures in 20^th-century art was a creative synergy which allowed them to redefine the contours of their respective media. Cage’s principles – such as the use of chance, the refusal to separate art from life, or the broadening of the musical act to all sounds – had a deep influence on Cunningham and his way of apprehending the interaction between bodies, space and time. To give back to Cage’s thought the place it deserves, we have decided to reactivate his Musicircus: an invitation to invade the CN D to fill it with sounds, speech and dance. Taking the form of “organised chaos”, the performances, concerts, lectures or workshops will take place simultaneously in the entire space – from the hall to the roof and the studios, and even the banks of the canal.