La petite musette, casquee
A character sits on a chair, quiet and tranquil. His face is stuck to a mask set in a cylindrical pipe full of pear syrup. The face is turned to the wall as if encapsulated. The performer breathes through a diving gear. The character and his environment are coated in Liege syrup. His back bears a violin-shaped carving; his arm shows the writing ‘hand made’ and a cigarette keeps burning at all times and is lit up again and again by the audience.
A musette is an accordion /backpipes; it is music, music that has a healing function on human beings – which is also action and the upkeep of self-activation. Its presence generates a feeling of belonging and companionship. Banal initiatives, simple gestures that were born spontaneously in human beings are repressed and become ossified.The character is a prisoner of the construction, stuck on a chair, glued in syrup. Without any freedom for movement, without any natural vital space, looking in a fixed direction, the character is in a forced social direction. The cigarette embodies time, passivity and calm; it also renders the atmosphere. And the fire is there to replace the heat and notions of conviviality and comfort.
Credits
Produced by: SPIE- Nadja Vilenne Gallery, Liège – kasteel Schuurlo, Sint – Maria, Aalter