What is the life expectancy of a plastic bag? From crude oil polyethylene to the moment it is thrown away? For how long is it actually in use?
Not long at all, compared to the length of time it will then stray across the planet, blown and buffeted by the wind.
This is where its real life begins; its autonomous life. Little anonymous plastic bag amongst the world’s countless little plastic bags, on its way to a rot-proof eternity.
Let’s hope there’s a strong wind to help it overcome any obstacles, to carry it across oceans and mountains, to encounter new possibilities and to try out different lives.
What if we humans, so firmly anchored to the ground, what if we too could escape the pull of gravity and fly with the wind, free at last, carried along by the arbitrary waltz of the air?
What if we were unconsciously feeding our thirst for the discovery of unknown territories, of fighting uncertain battles to make each one of our members part of us, autonomous and uncontrollable.
Upright or upside down, free up those hands, be the object of all motion and movement. Just a sound and the air’s caress.
This performance piece uses a simple turbine in order to create a vortex. The little plastic bag characters evolve in the air space, responding to the movement of the air which is in turn controlled by the protagonist.
Phia Ménard, august 2010
artistic director
Phia Ménard
assisted by
Jean-Luc Beaujault
performed by
Phia Ménard
sound track composition
Ivan Roussel, using Claude Debussy’s « Afternoon of a Faun »
stage manager
Olivier Gicquiaud
sound master
David Leblanc
puppets design
Phia Ménard
puppets manufacture
Claire Rigaud
co-director, administration and booking
Claire Massonnet
administration and production assistant
Justine Dufief
public relations and production
assistant Justine Lasserrade
Photos
© Jean-Luc Beaujault
Non Nova is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication – DRAC des Pays de la Loire, Nantes City Council, the Conseil Régional des Pays de la Loire, the Conseil Départemental de Loire-Atlantique, the Institut Français (France’s international cultural relations body).
The company is based in Nantes.
The company Non Nova - Phia Ménard is currently associated artist at the « TNB, Centre Européen Théâtral et Chorégraphique de Rennes », at « La Maison de la danse et à la Biennale de la danse de Lyon », at « la scène nationale de l’Essonne ». The company Non Nova – Phia Ménard is « artiste repère de la Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand scène nationale ».
Phia Ménard (1971, Nantes) Watching Jérôme Thomas’ show « Extraballe» in 1991, Phia Ménard realised she felt a strong desire to train in the performing arts and in particular in the art of juggling. She founded the company Non Nova in 1998 and developed a form of stage work where the spectacular, visual aspect of juggling is downplayed and challenged, in favour of a new relationship with her audience. In 2008 her artistic career took a new direction with the project « I.C.E. » - « Injonglabilité Complémentaire des Eléments » (« Complementary Unjugglability of the Elements »), with the aim of examining the imaginative aspect of transformation and erosion through natural matter and the elements. Since January 2008, different cycles have been initiated : The Ice Cycle, with pieces like « P.P.P. », « ICE MAN » and « Black Monodie » ; The Wind Cycle : « Afternoon of a foehn Version 1 », « Afternoon of a foehn », « VORTEX » and « Les Os Noirs » ; the Water and Steam Cycle : « Belle d’Hier » and « Dry Season » ; The Sublimation Cycle : « Immoral Tales – Part 1 : Mother House », « No Way » and « The Trilogy of Immoral Tales (for Europe) » created at the Festival d’Avignon in July 2021 ; The Garden and Ruins cycle : « ART.13 ». Her pieces are presented in France and all over the world (more than 50 countries).