Yann Marussich tour in Mozambique
Following on from his research trip at the end of 2022, Swiss performance artist Yann Marussich will return to Mozambique for a tour from 29 September – 12 October 2023. He will perform two works “Blanc” (2015) and “Bain Brisee” (2010) at cultural venues in Nacala, Nampula, Maputo and the ruins of the Ilha du Mozambique, as well as screen a video-performance film of his work to initiate discussion with other artists on performative language.
The Mozambican tour represents a moment of transition for the artist. After many years of work devoted to creating solo performances, Yann is now interested in collaborating and creating with other artists with diverse worldviews and experiences. He is exploring new formats of working through long tours that include research, performances and initiating new creations in collaboration with local artists and structures.
ABOUT THE WORKS
In “Bain Brisee” Anne Rochat write that “for some two hours, Yann Marussich plunges the audience into a visual and sensory apnoea, until the body is freed to the echoing sound of crushing glass. All the while, the audience is submerged, deep in concentration and frozen by the glances they share with the performer. This performance is the conclusion of the “glass cycle”, a hypnotic experience between performer and spectator.”
“Blanc” is a performance for a public space which invokes the “audience” to participate in writing a collective requiem in response to the question “how would you like to die”? In “Blanc”, Yann Marussich offers an evolving performance according to the context, a kind of tableau vivant around a question that is at once existential, political and poetic.
BIOGRAPHY
Yann Marussich (1966) is a unique character in the field of performance and contemporary dance as he delivers performances that have a disturbing and provocative impact on the audience. Since 1989, he has signed a score of performances and choreographies shown all over Europe and throughout the world. In 2001, Yann created Bleu Provisoire, his first totally immobile piece. Since then, his work on living immobility has continued to grow in intensity. His field of exploration is located halfway between body art and bio art. In December 2015, a performative exhibition of Yann’s work was programmed at Le Commun (Geneva) entitled Experience of Immobility – 20 years of performance Acts. A major retrospective was organized in 2018 at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes. Winner of the Ars Electronica prize in the Hybrid Art category with the performance Bleu Remix in 2008, Yann has been awarded the CERN Collide Geneva artistic residency prize at the end of 2019. In 2022, he won the Swiss Performing Art Award for his whole career. As a multi-faceted artist, Yann also dedicates himself to writing, engraving and drawing. For a few years now, he has been exploring new artistic possibilities with the creation of video-performances. Since 2011, Yann is supported through an annual grant from the Department of Culture of the City of Geneva.
