PIXEL is a creation of a hip-hop choreographer Mourad Merzouki and two video artists Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot. It is a tournament between a dancer and an image, a dialogue between the two worlds – the world of dance and the world of an interactive video/multimedia. What are the relationships between a dancer’s body – that is so material, physical and corporeal – and the world of digital image – so ephemeral and illusory? PIXEL belongs to the most ancient arts genre of trompler, which means deceit. It is based on the principals of optical illusion; the audience soon fails to realize how it is possible for the dancers to get off the ground – thanks to the 3D image the real and the unreal become one and get totally mixed up together. In the experimental performance by Mourad Merzouki the classical stage conflict between partners is transformed to be a confrontation between abilities of the body and digital reality.
MOURAD MERZOUKI
French choreographer, began practicing martial arts and circus arts at the age of seven. When he was fifteen he got interested in hip-hop culture and through that discovered the world of dance. Merzouki decided to develop street hip-hop dance in the context of other dance forms and genres. At the age of sixteen, together with his friends he founded his first company Accrorap. In 1994 the company triumphantly performed at Lyon’s Biennial Dance Festival. Merzouki established his own company, Käfig, in 1996. He founded a hip-hop dance festival, Karavel, in Bron in 2007. In 2009 Merzouki also created the first hip-hop choreographic school that is attached to his company.
VIDEO ARTISTS
Adrien M / Claire B Company was founded in 2004 by two multimedia and digital artists Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot. They have produced work in drama and dance, made exhibitions and installations using some specific video coding programmes that combine real and digital worlds. The Company also carries out research and development for new programmes that would create visual language via programming.