Score Conductor

Cindy Van Acker and Victor Roy designed the concrete objects that the written scores have become:

• a 16m long landscape of white blocks for Kernel (2007);
• a white cube for one of the scores in Fractie (2003), with four flat motorised irons that reproduce the movements originally performed by each of the dancer’s limbs;
• a 1m50 x 1m knitted fabric for another Fractie score;
• 9Tubes, a machine designed and created by Victor Roy for Diffraction in 2011, which takes on its full dimension in the space occupied by Score Conductor. Made up of nine rails on which neon lights glide at variable speed and intensity, programmed according to the score written for the dancers, it plays an important role in the exhibition as a whole and determines the organisation of the works in the space;
•  a mural for the Balk 00:49 score.

As a counterpoint to these visual, meticulous, and sometimes mathematical representations, Orsola Valenti’s films, based on 6 solos created in 2008 and 2009, are projected in a loop in a black box. They allow one to enter into a more poetic and carnal dimension of the choreographer’s work.

For the performances, Van Acker worked with three of her long-standing collaborators: Tamara Bacci, Perrine Valli, and Rudi Van der Merwe. The four of them took over the exhibition space for a three-part performance consisting of ON/OFF, a new score created for the occasion, an extract from Kernel, and a score from Fractietranscribed in the form of a living sculpture.

Finally, Score Conductor is an opportunity to showcase the scores designed by Gaïa Biaggi for the book that was written by Michèle Pralong and published on the opening day of the exhibition: partituurstructuur. Reprocessed by the Parisian graphic design collective Akatre, they are presented in A2 format within the exhibition.

By playing with these different mediums and ways of transposing the scores, the project gives the audience an insight into the choreographic process, the source of the movements, and the principles behind the construction of the works.