E X T R A C T O F R E C O N S T R U C T I O N P R O J E C T

Portfolio 2016 Marion Menan

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

This portfolio presents 05 artistic projects done by Marion Menan and an appendice with her statment, biography and resume.

You can follow some in this portfolio to watch her project’s extract on the internet. You just need to click on it.

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Reconstruction started as a projection of a white square onto a closed door, three tennisballs and the ludicrously fierce determination to enter the image. After many attempts and longmoments spent looking at the door, staring at the image (waiting), moving back, running, hittingagainst (the wall), the computer goes into sleep mode projecting the wallpaper “Galaxie” (©Apple). This is the first apparition : looking at a galaxy of yellow stars, surrounded by tennisballs is in a way yes, it is like entering the image without having opened the door. Reconstruction started with this observa-tion : whilst attempting to represent something (what?), very quickly the research itself was presented.

Today Reconstruction is presented as a sequence of visual and audio apparitions that questions observation and representa-tion. As in an operation using manipulations of volume-and scale, a constant exercise in montage. A montage where construction, transformation anddestruction would have the same significance.

For the moment Reconstruction is a collection of images, vid-eos and decors gathered andassembled on stage through a per-formance conducted as an investigation. Persuade that thefiction is to come. That the resolved investigation would ex-plain the events. But nothing elseexplains the presence of the investigation that the very desire to look for.

*In that sense, in its search for clues Reconstruction creates substance. As each element is a •••

« Persuade that the fiction is to come.

That the resolved investigation

would explain the events. But nothing

elseexplains the presence of the investigation that

the very desire to look for.»

re- ConstrUCtion

01

Reconstruction p Performance in progress Concept and realisation p Marion MenanWith p Marion Menan and Simon Loiseau

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

••• discovery each discovery becomes an event. Repeating the samemovements, though slightly different each time, incites the “lack of ” whilst generating theprojec-tion. With the ideal goal of constructing a performance that would in itself be are construction of a piece that has already been. Reconstruction can be placed in theambigu-ity of a previous future : in-between the tangible presence of a researcher in action andthe sensation of fictive absence.

A sort of performative criminolgy. One could say Reconstruction is a research of diversity in forms, sounds and colours.That it is a formally disorganised geometry where materials are ma-nipulated in parallel tomeaning. Where materials move as fast as the meaning.The first findings of the production were presented on stage at the Theatre de la Balsamine (Brussels). However Reconstruction can be presented in different types of space duringits evolution from studio to factory, apartment to parking lot... anywhere with sufficient access to electricity and projection surfaces.• « A sort of performative

criminolgy.»

re- ConstrUCtion

01

Reconstruction p Performance in progress Concept and realisation p Marion MenanWith p Marion Menan and Simon Loiseau

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

01

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

01

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

01

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Threshold is a physical division questioning presence by incor-porating the image of a paradoxical body .

Seeking a form of identity. Threshold puts forward an awkward relationship with the audience: a reversible body opensa fluid space; enforcing a grinding back and forth between opposite existences. The look is confronted by his own will to believe, and oscillating between the Comfortable daily reality and the strange impossibility of the fiction.

An anonymous, foreign body hiding itself. Each action leading to one more misunderstanding : Identity is a tension area. A near-life. An unattainable presence. A doubt willingly left un-resolved. An enigma.•

Threshold p Performance in 2014Concept and realisation p Marion MenanWith p Marion Menan

« An unattainable presence.

A doubt willingly left unresolved.

An enigma.»

tHresHold02

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

02

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Dégaine is concerned with identity, the idea of the common and the body as representation.allure, silhouette, style, clothing, composure, attitude, attraction, appearance, originality, mar-ginality...

And the rest : what escapes us, what we each carry unawares, our voices, our bodies: whatever the context or approach, the dégaine is hunted as material and explored as object in the question of presence.

Faced with the (anticipated) impossibility of defining “dégaine”, Victor and Marion participate in the (rather concrete) presen-taion of self and the (rather responsive) view of the other.

For the first stage of dégaine, victor and marion occupied front window space of a gallery as theirworkspace. with this instal-lation the working artists simultaneously represent. document-ing the observing passers-by, this system offers a moment of observation simultaneously visible and directly questioning the body in representation.

The final presentation of this stage of work took the form of an installation in the gallery’s windowregrouping interviews, vid-eos and photographies. mixing fiction and reality, the daily and unusual. transforming anthropological research into visual and playful scenery.•

Dégaine p An installation and performance research projectConcept and realisation p Victor Dumont and Marion Menan

« The dégaine is hunted as

material and explored as object in

the question of presence.»

dÉgaine03

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

03

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

03

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

03

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

03

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Figures (Gang) is an installation placing entire or dismem-bered mannequins in exhibition or public spaces. The instal-lations question the ideas of « static » and « movement » into a time which seems to stand still. A suspended moment where the inanimate bodies propose movement. Minimising identity. Cloning. Not representing a collective identity, simply col-lecting bodies. Yes, collecting the body. In these eclectic scenes the different elements interact and renegotiate the boundaries between self and the other ones, here and elsewhere, always on theborder of strange and amusing.

Figures (Gang) was developed in response to an open call launched by the City of Ath. Figures (Gang) offered a series of installations constructed around the notions of identity and limits aiming at developing the artistic identity of Ath and its surrounding areas.•

Figures (Gang) p Installation in 2014Concept and realisation p Marion Menan

figUres (gang)

«Minimising identity. Cloning.

Not representing a collective identity, simply

collecting bodies.»

04

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 5 / 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

04

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

04

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

04

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Pilotprojekt p (Chrono)logical order :1. Wanting to create a piece based on playback.2. Finding a space and time to lose. 3. Exploring video, performance and microphones.4. Focusing the research on elements of absence and repetition. Consensus to base the projecton sUiCide. 5. Working in the forest, recording a meal, filming near a lake. 6. Showing on stage and screen projections of the mental im-ages of our own death. 7. Realize that all the scenarios are possible. 8. Developing the project in a cinema.9. Constructing an audiovisual performance format. 10. Collectively writing a piece in which an individual per-forms a suicide : continuously trying,explaining, exploring, re-peating, seeking a form of disappearance, he stages himself, he is stillthere

Wir sind nie da (Nous ne sommes jamais là) p A collective of four artists formed in 2011 in Berlin. Born from the common will to question three disciplines WSND is a live practice of performance, video and audio research. After a year of devel-opment the collective was programmed to participate in the 100° festival organised by Hau in Berlin were they presented Pilotprojekt in February 2012.•

Pilotprojekt p Presentation en 2012Concept and realisation p Wir sind nie da Collective 2011 | 2012With p Marion Menan | Audio research p François SalléStaging p Elsa Chêne | Video p Jonathan Bénéteau

« 8.

Developing the project

in a cinema.»

pilotproJeKt05

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

05

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

05

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

05

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

statementQuestioning representation itself : mechanisms of interpreta-tion, of fictionalisation**, of apparition and narration, insert-ing doubt through distortions or disappearances. Within this idea; research, assembly, implementation and tools used for construction are often visible and part of the work; they are events. Taking time. Waiting even. And making the experience of spectacle an unstable place of presence, with the ability to signal absence.

My works always begin with a disposition of everyday objects with which I construct stories like puzzles : Threshold began with a hoodie, Figures (Gang) with a basketball, Dégaine a desk, Reconstruction tennis balls.•

* Offset : deviation, gap, delay, distortion

My work can be placed at the intersection of installation, movement

and theatrical representation.

I focus mainly on the spectator’s desire for fiction, their will to believe and their capacity to create their own narrative paths. I manipulate perception as conscious decision through visual and performance elements that allow introspection of the viewer. I create openings, where observation is a key element in the cre-ation of the fiction, which is simultaneously contradictory.

My pieces use sound, the body, projections (of images, texts), light and unusual or everyday objects as tools. Repetition, per-sistence, their variations as means. The elements coexist, com-municate, resist and transform into new areas of friction as time becomes a narrative period.

Creating a defined moment where the time required to con-struct / receive / read, allows to be disturbed by offsets*, plac-ing each element in a time-frame that traces the outline of a narrative. Telling stories whilst examining fiction as an enigma. A bizarre mixture of humour (often), anxiety and loneliness (sometimes).

**Fiction : imagination, sham, fabrication, hypothesy, assumption

appendiCes

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

Marion Menan is a French artist based in Brussels. After hav-ing spent five years in theatre and literature studies at univer-sity she quickly distances herself from the literary field of the-atrical practice, focussing instead on studies of the image and script writing.

She develops her interest in artistic movements and collectives that create outside of the system of compartmentalisation, go-ing on to write a theatre script for her memoir in 2010.

The text functions as a theatrical performance piece, transpos-ing processes found in both the literary and cinematic « fantas-tic genre ».

In 2011 she moves to Berlin to create Pilotprojekt with the col-lective Wir sind nie da (We are not there) in which she performs and participates in script development.

In 2013 she enters the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels for a double degree in Art in Public Space and at the Higher Institute of Arts and Choreography (ISAC). She obtains her Masters in 2015.

Since then, she has developed her collaborative research proj-ect Dégaine and is seeking spaces to continue Reconstruction, a performance work in progress.•

biograpHyappendiCes

P O R T F O L I O 2 0 1 6 p M A R I O N M E N A N

ColleCtive eXHibitions, Creations and Collaborations

2015 − Dégaine, creation residency, Hidden, Brussels (BE)− Form & place, résidency and exhibition, Art By Friends gallery, Annecy (FR)− Reconstruction, performance, Théâtre de La Balsamine, Brussels (BE)− On avait bien pensé à …, workshop and performance s of Yves-Noël Genod, La Raffinerie, Brussels (BE)2014− Threshold, performance, Haekem space, Brussels (BE) − Territoires Sans Cible, collective exhibition, Centre Culturel de Ath, Ath− C(h)ach/(ss)e, performance in the framework of Salon du sang neuf, Ateliers Claus, Brussels (BE)2013Logotypes 02/03, creation residency / shoot, a movie by Marie Lancelin, Angers (FR)2012Pilotprojekt, performance and theater, collective Wir sind nie da, festival 100°, Hebel Am Ufer, Berlin (DE)

Writing

2010− “Edema”, theater script− “Fantastique register” in theater, mémoire, University of Brussels (distinction)

assistansHip / internsHip

2009-2010Compagnie Transquinquennal, assistanship of staging and production, Brussels (BE)2008-2009Réseau des Arts, internship, Brussels (BE)

baCKgroUnd

2015Master Art in public space/ Higher Institut of Arts and Choreography (ISAC), Royal academy of fine arts, Brussels (Grande distinction)2010Master in Performing Arts, University of Brussels (distinction)2008Licence of Litterature and Theater, University of Nantes (FR)•

resUmeappendiCes

Marion Menan born in 1987, lives and works in Brussels. Present on Vimeo.

61 rue de la Poste1210 BrusselsBELGIUM

T (+32)483 61 25 32 marionmenan@gmail.com

Merci

© M A R I O N M E N A N 2 0 1 6 . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d .