PAPER MIRAGE

In Paper Mirage, Olga de Soto turns the raw matter of trees, which is paper, into the subject of the performance, to immerse us into a sound universe that explores the sounds of this fragile material, which is both a remnant and a reminder of the vegetal world. The paper, surface and potential volume, body of the document, support of words and images, vector of memory and discourse, thus becomes a sound element under the effect of the action and a surface of projection for the spectators' imagination. Using a set of different sheets of paper and starting from different actions freely inspired by sound effect techniques, she explores the physical relationship between matter and sound and the relationship between sound and image, with the idea that matter and space could preserve the memory of the sounds received. The different unfolding sound actions gradually unfurl as open spaces, where action gives rise to matter, while simultaneously creating areas of shifts between sound and silence, action and its echo, affirmation and withdrawal, audible and inaudible, the presence of sound and its resonance. Thus, from the idea of a displaced image taking shape in the air, the proposal plays with our perception while summoning sounds of environments and natural events, witnesses of a disappearing world. 

Paper Mirage is a continuation of the performance Paper Lane in that, like Paper Lane, it is presented as an act of resistance against the digital revolution and the profusion of overflow, high-speed and high-tech life that destroy the silence necessary for contemplation, introspection and reflection. This is inspired by the book Alienation and Acceleration: Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporality by the German sociologist and philosopher Hartmut Rosa, and by the recognition of the need for radical deceleration.           

COMPLETE DOSSIER UPON REQUEST

Concept and performance Olga de Soto
Sound and sound spacialisation Benoit Pelé, in collaboration with Pierre Gufflet
Production manager Julia Alix

production and distribution Niels Production (Brussels)
residencies La Tour à Plomb (Brussels), Centre national de la danse | CN D (Pantin), Charleroi danse (Brussels)

With the support by Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service Général de la Création Artistique — Service de la danse and Grand Studio  

Paper Mirage was premièred on July 2021 at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, in Paris, in the frame of Festival (((Interférence_s))).

Olga de Soto is subsidised by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles / Service de la danse and is accompanied by Grand Studio, Brussels.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, June 2024 © Museo Reina Sofia photographic archive