LARSEN LOVE

At the start, there are 7 words chosen by the audience from poetry collections, 1 memory collected from the audience, 1 repertoire of real sounds, 1 imposed sound object and a few other useful constraints to deliver a performance of poetic, sound and textual improvisation. Based on an exchange with the audience, sound director Sophie Berger and writer-performer Fabrice Melquiot invent poems live, 4-handed. Their workstations face each other. The audience is seated nearby, as if in a ring, for 3 rounds. Partners, guests and witnesses, spectators gain access to the kitchen of creation, to its artisanal dimension, to its attempts, blunders and flashes of brilliance. Within a 10-minute timeframe, the duo write, compose and tinker in parallel, porous and rebounding. From sketch to sketch, and with the utmost urgency, writing irrigates sound and sound irrigates writing. In the course of these echoes and gropings, landscapes open up, images take shape, rhythms assert themselves and verses emerge. Finally, a sound poem is born. Stroke for stroke, caress for caress, cry for cry, to the point of overflow. Here, feedback is understood as a loving, incisive and playful dialogue between microphone and amp, a dialogue based on one-upmanship and subject to the challenge of the moment. 

The Creation, Production and Distribution Workshop Cosmogama develops original concepts that bring together all the arts. Bringing together over 50 artists, the Atelier promotes a playful culture, open to encounters, expert in attempts to make people hear and see, understand and feel the interstices of the world. It favors a sensitive, supportive experience in close proximity to others on a variety of playgrounds - theaters, museums, classrooms, public squares, clearings, underground caves, swimming pools, gardens, etc. Co-founder and artistic director of Cosmogama, Fabrice Melquiot is a writer and performer. He is the author of some sixty plays, graphic novels and collections of poetry. He has also written some twenty radio dramas and songs. One of the most widely performed and translated authors of contemporary French theater, he has been associated with numerous theaters and companies. From 2012 to 2021, he directed Geneva's Théâtre Am Stram Gram, an international creative center for children and young people. From 2023, he will be part of the artists' committee accompanying the TJP project. Sophie Berger has been working with Fabrice Melquiot since 2022. A creator and sound engineer, she works for radio, live performance, exhibitions and installations. With her microphones, she has traveled France on foot along the Loire River, boarded a cargo ship bound for China or the Austral Lands, and brought back immersive sound pieces, invitations to listen to the world. They are broadcast by numerous media and festivals.

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