conception, choreography & scenography : christian rizzo
performed by kerem gelebek
light design : caty olive
general and light manager : érik houllier or jean-michel hugo
executive producer: l’association fragile
coproduction : Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Toulouse, l’association fragile, «Réseau Open Latitudes (Latitudes Contemporaines – Halles de Schaerbeek – Arsenic - Manège.mons /Maison Folie – Body/Mind – Teatro delle Moire – SIN Arts – Phénix) with the support of the culture programme of the of the European Union», Fondation Serralves – Porto. The company has been in residency at the Opéra de Lille, Serralves Fundation - Porto, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Toulouse, Théâtre de Vanves, Maison Folie de Mons for its rehearsals.
sakınan göze çöp batar (i.e., “an over-protected eye always gets sand in it”) reveals itself to be an interior exile: it talks about the soloist today who goes from a company to a country, from a style to a mood. Rizzo has captured this fleeting instant: a man who transforms himself into a dancer (…) We once again find the Rizzo of autant vouloir le bleu du ciel et m’en aller sur un âne that we love more than anything else. And, it’s beautiful. Philippe Noisette, Les Inrockuptibles, 11 April 2012
Christian Rizzo (…) has written a piece on Turkish dancer Kerem Gelebek’s journey (…). It’s simple, essential, inspired, aspiring.
Marie-Christine Vernay, Libération, 20 March 2012
sak?nan göze çöp batar reminds the theatre that it is “the place where one watches”. That it is the place of rapports and relationships. Christian Rizzo’s piece is inspired, whole, gentle. He constructs a rapport of strength that strikes at the heart of every idiotic power relationship in a new piece that goes straight to the essential – political poetry, exposing the intimate, the Other….
Marie-Juliette Verga, Paris-art.com, 27 March 2012
With and for the dancer Kerem Gelebek, Christian Rizzo has created a solo piece of a rare and precious beauty that goes to the heart of the matter with a great economy of means, stages the tugging between here and elsewhere, and points towards this fluctuating anchoring of selfhood (…). He treads towards the intimate and a necessary endangerment, and the choreographer advances along this path of a return to the self with an infinite gentleness and stubbornness.
Smaranda Olcese , Toutelaculture.com, 3 April 2012
Christian Rizzo interviewed by Stéphane Malfettes, 26 October 2011
Point of departure
This solo piece was born out of the desire to begin dancing again. But this desire quickly revealed itself to be paradoxical because, the more ideas came to me, the more I realized that I, in no way, wanted to perform them myself. The moment I understood my place was not on stage, I thought of Kerem Gelebek, a dancer who has participated in several of my shows since he left the CNDC in Angers. To facilitate the process of his replacing me on stage, I shared my ideas of what I was looking for. I saw him immediately adopt the materials I gave him: this imposed distance opened new horizons.
Vicariously
In Kerem, I see the person I might have been a few years ago: his way of moving and of occupying space, his silhouette, how he carries himself, his postures. Just before presenting an early stage of my work to the public, I pushed my mimicry to the point where I even asked him to put on my own clothes. With him, I feel like I’m vicariously performing the solo. Furthermore, I ask him to revisit actions I myself accomplished in other works: moving objects, lying down on the ground, sitting at a table…
Series of studies
This performance is composed of several specific sequences that could be presented as a series of studies, in the same way the graphic arts might approach a subject: study for man in a corner, study for man with a table, study for man with a green plant. In this face-to-face confrontation with another body, I look for physical principals I cannot explore with a group of dancers. The solo form is, for me, a veritable choreographic laboratory. I feel like I’m organizing thought in movement.
Exile from oneself
Kerem’s personal history – he left his country, Turkey, to come dance in France and move to Berlin – revealed the high stakes of this solo to me: staging the emotional experience of exile. The fact that another body is appropriating what I had initially planned to accomplish has de facto placed me in a position of exile. With this new work, the exile here is not geographic or political so much as it is existential. It’s more of a sort of exile from oneself, steeped in melancholy.
A condensation
It is very important for me that Kerem’s personality comes through in this solo. This is why I decided to keep the title he suggested in the original language. This Turkish expression literally means, “the eye you protect is the one that will be punctured”. In other words, when you’re trying too hard to protect yourself, the worst ends up happening. This expression has a quasi-programmatic value, it is addressed to the audience as a summary, or better yet, a condensation of my aesthetic: simply watch what is happening, and everything will turn out fine.