The Michaël Triptych (performance, 2020)
Developed partly during a residency at De School van Gaasbeek, the work explores the limits and possibilities of speech in three parts: lyric, epic and drama. The poetic text is written under the heteronym Michaël Schulz le Fèvre. In the first part, a poet recites poems as part of a lyrical recital, before losing grip on his own words. In the second part, the lectern has to move. In The Manifesto the format collapses into a fragmented stream of consiousness and sound poem. In the last part, The Tragedy, an actress attempts to revive the piece. In 2021, an intimate, unspoken final act was added as the definitive conclusion.
This piece goes alongside an artistic research, conducted as part of the 2020 graduation of Herter from the Institute of Performative Arts. The research was conluded with the lecture performance A multiplicity. In the piece, he explores the fluidity of identity and the limitations of language.
The piece deconstructs the concept of the individual as a rigid, fictional construct, proposing instead a multiplicity of selves that exists in connection with the world, rather than in isolation. Through the creation of a heteronym (Michaël Schulz le Fèvre), they investigate how naming creates reality, how the self contains multitudes, and how art serves as a bridge between the singular and the plural. The piece draws from philosophical and literary references to Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Fernando Pessoa, and Mary Jane Rubinstein to argue to embrace contradiction, ambiguity, and a "stay in non-recognition" as a form of freedom from social classification.
Concept: Olivier Herter
Performance: Aline Cornelissen, Olivier M. Herter
Text: Michaël Schulz le Fèvre
Thanks to: Anna Luyten, Anthony van Gog, Bert Luppes and Joost Horward
Partners: De School van Gaasbeek (BE)
Presentations
2020 Institute of Performative Arts (NL)
2019 September Festival (BE)
2019 MaydayMayday Festival (BE)
2019 Het dansende denken (BE)
The Triptych Michaël - A poetic performance about the limitations and possibilities of speech.
2020