Scarlett

« I started from the model of the painter to travel down the ages, arrive at Gala and Dali, Jeanne Moreau, James Dean, Jean Marais, Beyoncé… The idea was that all the writing should be done through references being underlined or skimmed over. Cyclically, I realized that we were going from something abstract to something very vulgar because representation, today, is after all much more vulgar in iconography and image fanaticism. (…) It is not a reflection on some muse or other but on The muse, some being more pop, more Italian or Renaissance. We are not talking about a necessarily masculine creator and a necessarily feminine muse, but prompting an open relationship between the creator and the muse. It is almost a political act to give thanks to muses or performers who have an active and present impact on the work. »

Arthur Perole, 2015.

In his second piece, Arthur Perole folds and unfolds the multiple figures of the muse on a wall of mirrors with floating reflections. Sculptural icons, male and female, dreamlike and mysterious figures, elusive and fascinating like so many references drawn from our collective imagination, painting or cinema. Ancient goddesses or pop star… In a dark and brilliant stage design like a black diamond, they appear, pose, sway, set free, undulate to the rhythm of musical waves, bound to the whimsical musician. A proud solitary figure with his back to the audience.

The performance, hypnotic in its slow gestural and musical crescendo, raises the question of the look: who is looking at whom? who is being looked at? who is the conductor of the ballet? The quartet’s skilful interplay ceaselessly questions, unsettles, fascinates. Scarlett’s stage design and public perception shed light on the creative process in which dance and music, creator and muse, work and audience, belong to each other.