Central stage
film in English and French with Italian subtitles
following: conversation with Nathalie Küttel (ShanjuLab)
Free admission with reservation. The reservation is valid up to 10 minutes before the start of the show, afterwards it will be possible to access while seats last.
Stefan Kaegi, with Judith Zagury and Nathalie Küttel, devise a theatrical aquarium to bring an octopus, a talented, curious and playful animal, to the stage.
Octopuses, with their eight tentacles, nine brains, three hearts and thousands of suckers, are capable of performing multiple actions, including changing their colour. Attracted by the unknown, they learn from experience. Some experts have even discovered traces of empathy and humour in them. Octopuses are the product of a parallel evolutionary line to that which has produced the human race, and their astonishing capabilities would make it possible for them to build advanced civilisations if only they were able to transmit skills and knowledge.
The performance, devised in relation to an exemplar of this animal, is the result of a process of learning and exchange in relation to its needs, skills, knowledge and responses. With the complicity of ShanjuLab, Stefan Kaegi has devised a theatrical, musical, cinematographic and documentary piece in which the observer may not be the player we expect. This time around the expert is the animal.
Stefan Kaegi, a Swiss artist, is one of the most important figures in European theatre. With the Rimini Protokoll collective he has helped to explore the concept of documentary theatre in depth, seeking to portray reality in every one of its many facets.
ShanjuLab is an artists' collective based in Gimel, which lives and works with animals.
At re-creatures a film that reverses the roles: who is looking at whom? Who is playing with whom? Can we, as human beings and as spectators, learn from a solitary master of the arts of multi-tasking and camouflage?
Recording of the performance by
Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll) in collaboration with Judith Zagury and Nathalie Küttel (ShanjuLab)
Music: Stéphane Vecchione
Production: Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, ShanjuLab Gimel, République Éphémère, Théâtre Saint-Gervais
In coproduction with Berliner Festpiele - Berlin, Rimini Apparat GbR, Centre Pompidou – Paris
Recording made by Bruno Deville and Bastien Genoux on the 7th of January 2021 in Theatre Vidy-Lausanne