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  • Research

    The fundamental principle of IRCAM is to encourage productive interaction among scientific research, technological developments, and contemporary music production. Since its establishment in 1977, this initiative has provided the foundation for the institute’s activities. One of the major issues is the importance of contributing to the renewal of musical expression through science and technology. Conversely, sp…

    • Research Topics
    • The STMS Lab
    • Research Teams
    • Sound Systems and Signals: Audio/Acoustics, InstruMents
    • Acoustic and Cognitive Spaces
    • Perception and Sound Design
    • Sound Analysis-Synthesis
    • Sound Music Movement Interaction
    • Musical Representations
    • Analysis of Musical Practices
    • Projects
    • Sound Workshop
    • The Musical Body
    • Creative Dynamics
    • Musique/Sciences Collection
  • Creation

    IRCAM is an internationally recognized research center dedicated to creating new technologies for music. The institute offers a unique experimental environment where composers strive to enlarge their musical experience through the concepts expressed in new technologies.

    • Composers & Artists in Studio
    • "I am in blood" for Sixteen Musicians and Live Electronics
    • Lucie Antunes in studio
    • Deena Abdelwahed in the studio
    • "Transfer" for 10 Musicians and Electronics
    • L'Annonce faite à Marie
    • In Ex Machina
    • Jazz Ex Machina
    • Improvise cum machina 1/2
    • Improvise cum machina 2/2
    • Like Sound, Like Flesh
    • Silent Talks
    • Music-Fictions
    • Artistic Research Residency
    • Artistic Residencies: The Blog
    • Rendez Vous 20.21
    • Season 2022.23
    • Seasons from 1996 to present
    • ManiFeste-2022 Website
    • ManiFeste festival from 2012 to 2022
    • L’Étincelle, IRCAM’s journal of creation
  • Transmission

    In parallel to its fundamental missions of research and creation, IRCAM is committed to sharing its knowledge and know-how, its technologies with the general public. Cutting-edge research and diffusion of innovations, an international reference for education and the democratization of artistic practices are the driving forces behind the institute’s educational activities.

    • 2022.23 Training Courses
    • Max, Max for Live
    • OpenMusic
    • Modalys
    • TS2 and Partiels
    • Sound spatialization
    • From PureData to audio plugins
    • Sensors, Interfaces, and Interactive Machine Learning
    • Other training programs
    • Practical Information
    • Advanced Programs
    • Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music
    • Supersonic Chair
    • Master ATIAM
    • Sound Design Master's Program
    • Music Doctorate
    • AIMove Master
    • School Programs
    • Studios of Creation
    • Mixed-Music
    • Artistic and Cultural Education
    • Career Discovery Visit
    • Images of a Work Collection
    • ManiFeste-2022, the Academy
  • Innovations

    At the center of societal and economic concerns combining culture and information technologies, the current research at IRCAM is seen by the international research community as a reference for interdisciplinary projects on the sciences and technologies for sound and music, constantly exposed to society’s new needs and uses.

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  • Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour
  • Composers & Artists in Studio
  • Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour
    • Biographie






Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour

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Premiere by the choreographer Wim Vandekeybus
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Science Fiction

At first, the pitch for Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour, the new show by Wim Vandekeybus, is reminiscent of a Hollywood blockbuster: an uncertain future, a post-apocalyptic world, and a savoir that emerges from chaos. Very quickly, we understand that things are not quite so simple: the subject is far more subtle, and the loud voice from the advertisements is tinged with a lucid irony (as seen in the title) combined with a tone taken from philosophical tales.

In this nightmarish universe, there is a bubble of safety, isolated from the rest of the world, within which humanity is "saved", even immortal. In this bubble—both a cocoon and a prison, heaven and hell—are seven people from diverse backgrounds. They were all brought to the bubble by the "contemporary messiah" announced by the title: a child who gave himself the mission, sacrificing himself, to scour the face of the earth to find as many survivors as possible and put them in this bubble where time is suspended and swaddled. This young boy, we never see him—sometimes we hear him—but he is omnipresent, in everyone’s mind. As their dances and conversations take place on stage, we see our 7 characters in distress, like a shattered portrait, where fact and fantasy, the real and the imagined intermingle.

In this skeletal and solitary Babel, existential questions are raised. Is immortality in the bubble, without any disorder, better than the dangerous life outside? Is humanity worth saving? Does the figure of the messiah suffice to continue to believe? To believe in life?


Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour © Wim Vandekeybus

Technologies

In a decidedly unwelcoming future, images are forbidden. No representation is possible of the outside world or its contemporary savoir. Everything is communicated with sounds. And where a film would have used special effects—digital or not—Wim Vandekeybus uses IRCAM technologies. "The evocative power of sound is often stronger that that of an image. Here, everything is communicated with audio." A veritable "sound décor" was imagined by Charo Calvo and Manuel Poletti to represent the exterior world: a post-apocalyptic universe represented by white noise, where every event is reported thousands of times, until implosion.

By throwing characters with a range of origins and profiles together in an arena, Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour also plays with the concept of collective and cultural memory. Another aspect of the sound work consists of simultaneous translation using a computer and vocal synthesis; multiple languages coexist on stage without subtitles. This exploits the musicality of languages, vestiges (in this dystopian future) of disappeared cultures, without sacrificing understanding.

Past Experiences at IRCAM

Wim Vandekeybus has spent many hours below the place Stravinsky, notably in conjunction with his friend and colleague Thierry De Mey, with whom he often works. And the Spaniard Charo Calvo, in charge of the performance’s sound, has also done his stint underground. But this is the first official IRCAM project for Wim Vandekeybus.

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  • http://www.ultimavez.com/fr/productions/mockumentary-contemporary-saviour
  • Wim Vandekeybus et l'Ultima Vez  © Danny Willems
    Wim Vandekeybus et l'Ultima Vez © Danny Willems
  • Wim Vandekeybus  © Danny Willems
    Wim Vandekeybus © Danny Willems

Biographie

person

Wim Vandekeybus

Choreographer, director, filmmaker (b. 1963)
Upon completion of his studies in psychology, in 1985 Wim Vandekeybus auditioned for Jan Fabre who offered him a role in The Power of Theatrical Madness. A year later, he founded Ultima Vez. Since his first per…


Related Events

Théâtre
Creation

Opening - Wim Vandekeybus

1 June to 4 June 2017
Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS
by Wim Vandekeybus
Performance
Creation

Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour

14 April to 22 April 2017
KVS, Bruxelles
by Wim Vandekeybus
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