ŌMERO // MONIA MONTALI & FRANCOIS BODEUX

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“Standstill and silence, but also stuttering, stumbling and almost falling: these are so many moments at which a flow that propelled us forward is interrupted, in which our thoughts, our senses can do their real work in peace and quiet”. Marianne Van Kerkhoven, The ongoing moment Monia Montali (dancer and choreographer) and François Bodeux (set designer / visual artist) have been collaborating on stage since 2010 after a common career in photography. They like to describe their approach as the staging of the gaze. It is based on an aesthetic that interweaves choreography, theatre, visual and sound arts in a porous manner. The aim is to create an extremely dense space of perception, in which each spectator can invest his own gaze. Circumscribing space, stretching time, working on the density of the most tenuous scenic elements are the primary modalities. The desire is to activate a mechanism of sensation able to inflect the gaze, to allow the senses and thoughts to carry out their task in complete tranquillity. For the stage, they created Wavering Abode, Company and ILL Seen, a trilogy based on Samuel Beckett's last prose texts. Odysseus, their latest creation, will be presented at the Brigittines in February 2022. Their stage work has previously been supported or co-produced by Les Brigittines, Charleroi Danse, C-Takt, workspacebrussels, BUDA Kortrijk, WP Zimmer, Pianofabriek and La Coop (the Belgian government's tax shelter). IAnd supported by WBI, WBTD and the Walloon-Brussels Federation (interdisciplinary commission for the performing arts). ﷯Monia Montali is a choreographer and performer. She lives in Brussels since 2001. After a period of study at the University of Bologna (DAMS-disciplines arts music performance), she trained in contemporary dance - following several workshops throughout Europe - then in photography at the Ecole de la Ville de Bruxelles. She began to develop her own photographic and scenic work in 2006. As a dancer, she has worked with choreographers, visual artists or theatre makers (e.g. Romeo Castellucci, Ted Stoffer, Kendell Geers, Georgio Khumalo...). As a photographer, she was part of the international collective SMOKE. His work has been published and exhibited through Europe (including Biennale de Liège, R.I.P. Arles, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris, Festival Séville, Marseille 2013...). For the stage, she starts with two solos: Amaurosis and TNNF (finalist for the Italian GD’A 2008 prize and selected by EXTRA, signals from the new Italian stage). Since 2010, she has been the author, with Francois Bodeux, of performances where theatre, choreography, visual and sound arts coexist. She also collaborates as a choreographer with Wooshing Machine since 2020 and with EKLA (Centre dramatique de Wallonie pour l’enfance et la jeunesse) as an artist working in schools since 2016. ﷯François Bodeux is a stage designer, lighting technician and creator of scenic and plastic works. He lives between Liège and Brussels. He worked several years as a PhD in sociology (UC-Louvain) before to study photography (Saint-Luc - Liège) and stage management (Infac - Brussels). From 2007 to 2012, he was part of SMOKE, a European collective of photographers committed to author’s documentary. His meeting with Monia Montali led him to take an increasing interest in contemporary dance and theatre, both from the point of view of creation and technical management. Since 2010, he has been working as an author with Monia Montali, as a stage manager, lighting designer or set designer for several venues and companies and as creator of plastic works.. As a photographer, he has exhibited his work most often in the form of installations - in many festivals and galleries (R.I.P. Arles, Biennale de Liège, Festival Séville, Biennale Balte de l’art contemporain, CWB Paris, Neunplus Berlin etc...). For the stage, he has collaborated with Charleroi Danse, Thierry De Mey, Ultimavez, Lefeuvre & Demestri, Meytal Blanaru, Léa Drouet etc... Today his work with lighting and scenography remains largely influenced by his experience with visual arts. It is based on a logic of research, craftsmanship and openness to the most advanced technologies, which most often leads him to create its own «technological crafts».