Thierry Fournier
Seul Richard - Installation - 2018
presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 20
Installation
The installation Seul Richard is adapted from William Shakespeare’s Richard II, the story of a king whose conviction that divine right places him above the laws of reality leads him to lose both his crown and his life. Here, Richard takes the form of a giant robot arm which dialogues on the stage with a film featuring all the other characters while at the same time adjusting the frame, focus and speed. The character’s voice is by actress Emmanuelle Lafon.
The film was shot in a garden and a forest, with three actors and ten amateurs, the great majority of them women. They face a POV camera which is like seeing through Richard’s own eyes – he is replayed in the installation by the gestures of the robot. A confrontation occurs between actors and amateurs, machines and living persons, human and non-human, divine and profane. This opens onto multiple questions about power, technology and politics, gender, the manipulation of speech and images, and presence and absence in the world.
Thierry Fournier
Thierry Fournier is a French visual artist and curator, graduated as an architect. His work explores the hypothesis of things (objects, phenomena, technologies) having their own life, and raises questions about identity, alterity and the limits of the human. His practice is protean: objects, installations, prints, network art, videos, performances, etc. His work is exhibited frequently internationally. He is also head of curating research labs at ensad Paris and ensad Nancy. He lives and works in Aubervilliers, France.
Production
Acknowledgments
Arcal Lyrique, Julien Arnaud, Avant-Rue Friche Théâtre, Franck Bauchard, Jean-François Chiama, Grégory Diguet and Bipolar, Ensemble Atopique, Juliette Fontaine, Antonio Guzman, Mains d'Œuvres, Florence March, Daniel Migairou, Giuseppe Molino, Frédérique Payn, Olga Pitarch, Benoît Résillot, Jean-François Robardet, Studio-Théâtre de Vitry, Alain Fleischer, Eric Prigent and the entire team at Le Fresnoy.
