Fierce Festival

14 — 18 October

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SCHEDULE:
  • BSL

DURATION:

70 mins

VENUE:

Birmingham Hippodrome – Patrick Studio
Thorp Street, Birmingham, B5 4BJ

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People Will People You

Steven Cohen

(Lille)

UK Premiere

In People Will People You, Steven Cohen engages in an unprecedented exchange, a direct dialogue with the audience. Rarely inclined to speak, he has always preferred the body as a means of expression and scenographic support, but this time he chooses the spoken word as a means of existence and resistance. With this gesture, he invites an encounter in which everyone, artist and spectator, becomes both witness and actor, in a space where the spoken word circulates, transforms and liberates. It’s a space where new forms of thought and action can emerge, free from the cloak of our galloping virtualities.

At the heart of this performance, Steven Cohen engages in a ritual of inverted transfiguration: an exploration of the intimate through metamorphosis, a symbolic stripping. This ritual consists of both destruction and creation, for the destruction of a work of art is essentially the birth of a new one. In this process, doing and undoing merge… and vice versa. This ritual is an invitation to a shared transformation where art and life merge, where one gives the other meaning, purpose and the means to transcend chaos.

FIERCE SAYS

“How do you say goodbye to the stage? What does it mean to stop? Or end? The incomparable Steven Cohen – who made an indelible impression last Festival with put your heart under your feet… and walk! – paves the way once again with his final stage work. The beauty! The beauty!”

In People Will People You, Steven Cohen engages in an unprecedented exchange, a direct dialogue with the audience. Rarely inclined to speak, he has always preferred the body as a means of expression and scenographic support, but this time he chooses the spoken word as a means of existence and resistance. With this gesture, he invites an encounter in which everyone, artist and spectator, becomes both witness and actor, in a space where the spoken word circulates, transforms and liberates. It’s a space where new forms of thought and action can emerge, free from the cloak of our galloping virtualities.

At the heart of this performance, Steven Cohen engages in a ritual of inverted transfiguration: an exploration of the intimate through metamorphosis, a symbolic stripping. This ritual consists of both destruction and creation, for the destruction of a work of art is essentially the birth of a new one. In this process, doing and undoing merge… and vice versa. This ritual is an invitation to a shared transformation where art and life merge, where one gives the other meaning, purpose and the means to transcend chaos.

FIERCE SAYS

“How do you say goodbye to the stage? What does it mean to stop? Or end? The incomparable Steven Cohen – who made an indelible impression last Festival with put your heart under your feet… and walk! – paves the way once again with his final stage work. The beauty! The beauty!”

artist bio

▶︎

Steven Cohen was born in 1962 in South Africa, he now lives in France. Performer, choreographer and visual artist, he has orchestrated interventions in public places, in art galleries or on stages, notably for the Festival d’Automne, at the Center Pompidou in Paris, at the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris, in Montpellier Danse, at the Festival d’Avignon, for the Munich Opera Festival at the Bavarian State Opera, at the Escena Contemporánea Festival in Madrid, at the Bozar in Brussels, at the Oktoberdans festival in Bergen , at the Canadian Stage in Toronto. He has participated in residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Center for Performance Research in New York.

 

From 2003 to 2008, Steven Cohen and his partner, Elu Kieser, were associated artists of the Ballet Atlantique/Régine Chopinot in La Rochelle, France.

 

His works as a visual artist have been regularly exhibited around the world since the 1980s. The South African National Gallery in Cape Town is currently preparing a retrospective exhibition of his entire work scheduled for 2024.

He also runs workshops around the world that question the body as a scenographic object.

Steven Cohen’s visual artist activities are represented by STEVENSON Gallery in South Africa.

CREDITS

▶︎

Choreography, Stage Design, Costume: Steven Cohen
Lighting Design: Yvan Labasse
Video: Bapiste Evrad
Production Management: Samuel Mateu
Production: Cie Steven Cohen
Co-Production: Théâtre National de Bretagne, Centre Dramatique National (Rennes), euro-scene Leipzig
Funding: Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles de Nouvelle-Aquitaine

VENUE INFO

Accessible entry to the theatre is available on Hurst St. There are automatic doors with a push button on the right, leading to a ramp into the main foyer area. Lifts are available for wheelchair users to all levels 1-4. Accessible all gender and ambulant disabled toilets are available on all levels. Find out more here.

access

Re-entry not allowed during this performance

CONTENT WARNINGS

Nudity Pyrotechnics