Aymeric Hainaux & François Chaignaud (France) – MIRLITONS

Duration: 70 min.

The performance will be followed by a conversation with Aymeric Hainaux and François Chaignaud, moderated by Justė Kostikovaitė, curator of contemporary art exhibitions, project initiator, former Lithuanian Cultural Attaché to the UK.

Statement of intention by François Chaignaud:

The point of departure of our reunion was odd rhythms – 7 beats – which are anomalies in our orthonormal and binary Western environments, which form a challenge to our respective practices.  It is through the percussion of my feet on the ground that I sought to confront Aymeric; this led us to develop a percussive (heels against the floor, lips against the microphone), implacable, slightly liming, and rough music. The feet and the mouth stand in opposition, bodies are sculpted and activated through these two extremities, and we arrive in a place that is simultaneously connected to the underground and the skies. 

Our encounter has become a confrontation, a competition, an alliance, a ritual – somber and tiring it appeared to invoke its antidote, its underside. Those few moments we shared in the opacity of the studio confirmed our desire to meet regularly to let these mirlitons escape, confront and comfort each other.

The scene is an arena. Two masked bodies, martial,

unrecognizable, humble, and rattling. Microphones, loudspeakers,

risers, bells, shoes. A ritual of presentations, a

confrontation, a knot, a denouement. A

total saturation of frequencies and muscles: a therapy through

excess. Bodies and sounds torn between the

melancholy of vanished rituals and the

aggressiveness of actuality. Lips and

heels in search of a forgotten code. A gracious and enduring

duel of beatbox and percussions: a wall, a halo, an ancient world

lost in the face of toxic perspiration, buried in the two fighters.

François Chaignaud, a 2003 graduate from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance, François Chaignaud has danced for many choreographer., including Alain Buffard, Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, and Gilles Jobin. Since his first piece in 2004, he weaves for dance the aspiration of a comprehensive expression.

His work is characterized by the articulation of singing and dance (Думи мої, 2013) and a profound relationship to history. In 2021, he founded Mandorle Productions, whose artistic line is based on the cooperation with other artists. He also creates pieces for large groups of performers: Soufflette 2018 for Carte Blanche, the piece t u m u l u s with Geoffroy Jourdain (Les Cris de Paris) in 2022. 

Aymeric Hainaux, with his background in the visual arts, Aymeric Hainaux is invested in a very personal approach of tthe human beatbox. He creates machine sounds so precise as the famous Roland TR909, and his incomparable technique makes him one of the prominent artists of this art. Hainaux “plays what happens,” and his performances are a music of the present instant, attentive to silence and movement. Without a loop pedal, but the use of a microphone, some bells, a harmonica, and sometimes a cassettes player, all exclusively played in real time. 

With banjo player Stéphane Barascud, in 2013, he created the music brut duo Cantenac Dagar. The group has released a dozen records, and this duo remains Hainaux’s main musical project.

distribution:

conception and interpretation: Aymeric Hainaux & François Chaignaud

artistic collaboration: Sarah Chaumette

costumes design: Sari Brunel

technical manager: Marinette Buchy

production:

Mandorle productions (Garance Roggero, Jeanne Lefèvre, Emma Forster)

International distribution APROPIC–Line Rousseau–Marion Gauvent

Mandorle productions is subsidized by the Ministry of Culture (DRAC Auvergne- Rhône-Alpes) and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

François Chaignaud is an artist associated with Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy, with Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse and with Maison de la danse and the Biennale de la danse de Lyon.

coproductions:

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (FR)

Festival d’Automne à Paris (FR)

Charleroi danse, centre chorégraphique de Wallonie – Bruxelles (BE)

Maison de la Danse, Lyon – Pôle européen de création (FR)

Festival Next (FR / BE)

Theater Rotterdam (NL) en cours

Triennale di Milano (IT)

KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen Hannover (DE)

supports:

Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy (FR)

Avec le soutien en résidence de l’Espace Pasolini/Laboratoire

artistique Valenciennes (FR)

La Villette, Paris – Initiatives d’Artistes (FR)

Malraux, scène nationale de Chambéry Savoie (FR)

Les Aires – Théâtre de Die et du Diois, scènes conventionnées

d’intérêt national – « Art en territoire » (FR)

special thanks to Balakumar, Edouard Prabhu, Prune Becheau

Premiere: From October 11th to 14th and from October 20th to 22th 2023 at the MC93 in the Festival d’Automne à Paris.

Instagram: @theycallmefrannie

Photos by Martin Argyroglo.