Chanter comme des oiseaux (performance)

Sung performance
of Lucile Bertrand's Chanter comme des oiseaux (Singing like birds)
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By the dancer, choreographer and vocalist Johanne Saunier
and the lyric singer Éléonore Lemaire — Ballets confidentiels
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Between enchantment and melancholy, Chanter comme des oiseaux (Singing like birds) bears witness to the progressive disappearance of the sound diversity emitted by the birds that inhabit our planet: the fourteen bird songs drawn on the scores originate from the four corners of the globe but half of them is extinct or in the process of being so. They have a musical richness that many composers would envy, and they also possess the art of adapting their songs to their sound environment. Like birds, the singers punctuate the evening with their appearances and disappearances, freely interpreting the scores scattered in the space and adapting their movements and intervention to the places and circumstances.

On February 8, 2023, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Elsewhere by Lucile Bertrand and Elise Leboutte at the CCN/Centre culturel de Namur, and of the Semaine du Son 2023, Johanne Saunier and Éléonore Lemaire performed for the first time the series of seven scores of bird songs written and drawn without musical notes Chanter comme des oiseaux.

The scores, scattered throughout the exhibition space, were interpreted spatially and vocally in three phases: Chants 1, Chants 2 and Chants 3 (Songs 1, 2 and 3).

Warm thanks to Alexandre Christiaens, who filmed the performance at short notice.

Performance reiterated on April 7, 2023, during the evening of performances Vostok curated by Claire Luna, within the framework of the exhibition Symbiosium, Fondation Fiminco/Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, La Chaufferie — Fondation Fiminco, Romainville, France.