“Tribute to revolution”
It all starts with an empty plastic bottle and a broken vase.
A “show” is about to begin, but the vase needs replacing. Now. Someone sets to work on a new one. There isn’t enough time, but the “show” cannot wait. The ensemble enters in black suits, strikes a pose and begins to sing in an operatic style. Then the floor becomes slippery. They try to maintain their pose. They fail. Try again. Fail again. Soon the elegance collapses into a mass of bodies, and the apparently well-made vases turn out to be mere soft clay.
From here, Qui Som? begins its inexhaustible journey of absurdity. Created by Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias for their Franco-Catalan company Baro d’evel, the work premiered at the Festival d’Avignon in 2024. Its title means “Who Are We?” in Catalan blending circus, dance, clowning, live music and ceramics.
In this production, the props are not merely props; they are independent agents like the human bodies. The clay becomes part of the dancers’ bodies, their faces, masks, ears, mouths. The empty plastic bottles are part of a life cycle. When a dancer carries a bag, there might be something living inside – or nothing. Human bodies and matters constantly negotiate with each other once the dancers learn their lesson through the slippery paint.
The ensemble’s physicality is extraordinarily funny. Their apparent clumsiness requires remarkable control that makes the comedy is so dynamic, and later that immense, formidable sea-beast, made of millions of black strips. Massive, Cthulhu-like, almost impossible to name, it occupies the entire stage and slowly vomit out plastic bottles. More and more, until they gradually overwhelm the stage. Reminder: they are the same plastic bottles with which the performance began, the one too plain, too normal to pay any attention to.
The production has a striking aesthetics. Covered in clay, mud and paint, surrounded by crushed plastic bottles, the stage retains an extraordinary formal clarity. Lluc Castells’s scenography allows the materials to accumulate, but itscomposition remains precise. There is also something deeply uncomfortable about the pleasure it creates. While recognising the waste, you still find yourself absorbed by its beauty.
By the end, the performance is extended to the foyer. The ensemble marches, sings and dances, recalling the revolutionary culture of France. Revolution. A word we have almost forgotten. A word we may even feel ashamed to use. A word we must practice, in daily life, in our mind, in our wisdom.
Credits:
Authors: Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias.
With Sabianka Bencsik, Lucia Bocanegra, Martina Calvo, Julien Cassier, Camille Decourtye, Cecilia Figueiredo, Mahamat Fofana, Greta García, Rita Mateu Decourtye, Blaï Mateu Trias, Mia Rahman, Marti Soler, Guillermo Weickert.
Collaboration in directing: Maria Muñoz and Pep Ramis / Mal Pelo
Collaboration in dramaturgy: Barbara Métais-Chastanier
Set design and costumes: Lluc Castells
Lighting design: María de la Cámara and Gabriel Paré / Cube.bz
Musical collaboration and sound creation: Fanny Thollot
Musical collaboration and composing: Pierre-François Dufour
Material / colour research: Bonnefrite
Ceramic percussion engineer: Thomas Pachoud
Ceramists: Sébastien De Groot and Lucas Georges Jones
Technical management: Romuald Simonneau
Stage management: Mathieu Miorin
Lights management: Enzo Giordana
Sound management: Cholé Levoy
Dresser: Carole Vigné
Cook: Ricardo Gaiser
Managing director / Promotion: Laurent Ballay
Production administrator: Caroline Mazeaud
Production manager: Pierre Compayré
Administration assistant: Élie Astier
Production: Baro d’evel