con grazia

picture-of-the-project-con-grazia-by-the-artist-martin-messier-1
picture-of-the-project-con-grazia-by-the-artist-martin-messier-2
picture-of-the-project-con-grazia-by-the-artist-martin-messier-3
picture-of-the-project-con-grazia-by-the-artist-martin-messier-4

con grazia

Masters in the art of giving visual form to sounds, the virtuoso jacks of all trades and movement maestri Martin Messier and Anne Thériault are human detonators shattering the tension of an opus dedicated to the demolition of objects. In Con grazia they sound the knell of the death of matter. In the shadow of meticulous, performative destruction, machines rumble and roar, ready to create chaos.

They go at it with vigour, hammering away to a precisely determined score, with much clanging and clashing as objects selected for their spherical harmony burst into bits in a blur as gloves, sledgeham mer blows and movements ash before the eye. The hands think and strike. Manipulated by the performers, light sources imprint little miracles on the retina. Lamps caress what destruction has wrought from beauty. Messier and Thériault pulverize with grace, torturing the ripe fruit in a musical, rhythmic carnage that is intensely sensorial. An unsettling ode to the agony of the material world. 

Produced by
14 lieux + Lorganisme

Ideation
Martin Messier

Directed, co-created and performed by
Martin Messier + Anne Thériault

Lighting design
Martin Messier + Anne Thériault + Jean-François Piché

Music
Martin Messier

Visual design
Thomas Payette

Technicians during creative process
Dominique Hawry + Maxime Bouchard

Robotics
Louis Tschreiber

Outside eye
Patrick Lamothe

Robots manufacturing and technical production
Robocut

Text
Jessie Mill for Festival TransAmériques

Coproduction
Festival TransAmériques

Résidences de création
Circuit-Est Centre chorégraphique + Théâtre Hector-Charland (L’Assomption)

Support
CALQ, CAC, CAM

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯  MACHINE MOVEMENT MUSIC LIGHT  ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯  MACHINE MOUVEMENT MUSIQUE LUMIÈRE  ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯