This is not a painting. As with every stage production by Clédat & Petitpierre, art history, conceived as a biotope, becomes a playground that is conducive to the invention of new worlds. For L'art de vivre, the duo calls on the work of the painter Magritte and, more broadly, the dreams so dear to the Surrealists. The pattern of hardwood floorboards forms a landscape, and soft and hard materials merge to better unsettle us. In this mindscape, each object interacts with the words and actions of the two actor-dancers, bound by an intense friendship and a shared love of the stage: Guillaume Drouadaine, a young autistic performer from the Catalyse company, and Fabien Coquil. The joyful and moving presence of the duo questions our perception of the world and affirms, for the duration of a dream, that what binds us to one another is at the center of everything
Clédat & Petitpierre
For thirty years, the close-knit artistic duo Yvan Clédat and Coco Petitpierre have been working together. They met in 1986. Both are sculptors, performers, directors, and choreographers, as well as costume and set designers. Working equally in exhibition spaces and on stage, they have created a multifaceted body of work in which the body is constantly transformed and set in motion. Their creations are presented in France and in some fifteen other countries.