Initially, I chose to explore the relationship between the body and the image, how the images with which we are confronted resonate in us. My back became the receptacle of videos alternating between landscapes, naked bodies, violence, food, information, urbanism. In the silence, armed with an accordion, I work on the breath that escapes in singing. The image influences the rhythm of my breathing. The question is asked: how does the world that surrounds us force our body and condition us, without us even realizing it?

The performance is done a second time, but the accordion no longer appears sufficient: it is necessary to write for this body. So a working group is created, and thus is born the character of Roussalka, an aquatic goddess. She seeks to encapsulate a sensation: “Dive / Into calm and limpid waters / Or in the tumult of an agitated ocean’s waves / But to immerse myself / Immerse myself completely, right away / That the water may purge me.”

The water is her refuge, the place where she can tell her story. In a half-sphere of plexiglass, you can observe her naked body, observe her slightest movements and continue to use her as a screen for the videos. The water brings new possibilities and limitations. The arrangement makes any attempt at a “natural” performance style impossible. The text is voluntarily fragmented: spoken, recorded, projected. The videos are printed on her body, but also above her and her bubble, like traces of dreams and fears.

A dialogue is established between the actress and the different media. Each element present reveals an aspect of Roussalka. The sound is continuously present, sometimes so faint that it becomes inaudible. Noises, melodies and ambient noise alternate, constraining or accompanying the actress’s voice. She alternates between “I” and “she,” creating distance with the double that is none other than herself, who speaks despite her and over whom she cannot always exercise control.

Dreams, memories, confessions, anger. Different levels of reading combine in order to hear these débordements (overflowings), that vanish into a song when speech can no longer liberate Roussalka.

In development since 2008.

[Description translated by Luke Arnason]