fondation d'entreprise hermès search   press   contact   legal information The Foundation   Craftsmanship   Creativity   Education   Biodiversity   Calendar  
Exhibitions by the Foundation   Artists' residencies   Visual arts    Performing arts    Design  
project   team   links   calendar  
Aujourd’hui à deux mains ("Today, two hands, tomorrow")
A video installation by choreographer Pascale Houbin
A new installation by choreographer Pascale Houbin, of dance company Non de Nom, presents the "inner dance" of gestures performed at work.
Fascinated by sign language (which she learned in 1987) and the eloquence of hands, Pascale Houbin has spent years collecting the gestures of people at work – "gestural portraits" of their skill and expertise. "I watch people describing these gestures in the air," she explains, "like spatial calligraphy, a moving evocation of their skill, and its inner dance."

For Aujourd’hui à deux mains ("Today, two hands, tomorrow"), Houbin invited people to perform the gestures of their daily work, without tools or other supports. From blacksmiths, fighter pilots, agricultural workers and croupiers to the Hermès artisan turning a bag inside-out, the gestures are presented in a setting by scenographer Jean-Pierre Larroche, with a sound environment by composer Michel Musseau and commentary by journalist Brigitte Patient. Visitors witness the structured gestures of everyday work, and the free movements of the arms and hands in dance. Pascale Houbin has created an authentic choreographic alphabet exploring the poetic resonances between work and dance. Her original approach gives rise to a new expressive form highlighting "our excessive focus on finished products, rather than the gestures that make them." The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supported the making of the installation, and its presentation at the Festival Uzès danse in June 2009.
Calendar
Festival Uzès danse (France), 14 – 18 juin 2009
Centre national de la danse, Pantin (France), 17 octobre – 7 novembre 2009
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France), 21 octobre – 23 novembre 2009
L’Athanor Scène nationale, Albi (France), 2 – 28 mars 2010
Château d’Oiron, centre d’art, Oiron (France), 3 avril – 9 mai 2010
Dijon (France), 1 – 22 july 2010

Team
Conception and production: Pascale Houbin
Stage design: Jean-Pierre Larroche
Production administrator: Alain Tabakian

Music: Michel Musseau. Pictures: Dominique Alisé. Montage: Ariane Doublet, Vladimir Berkhman (for the film Base 112). Radio journalist: Brigitte Patient. Technical manager: Denis Rion. Digital video: Adrien Mondot. Sound recordists: Graciela Barrault, Yves Grasso and Jürgen Schmitt. Mixing: Alexis Meier and Catherine Le Hir. Calibration: Guillaume Fernandez. Set builders: Eric Patin and Martin Gautron.

Installation production: Cie Non de Nom
Coproduction: Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, Le grand R, scène nationale de La-Roche-sur-Yon
With support from: Les Ateliers du spectacle, Sarab and Films, Ars numérica and the Communauté d'Agglomération du Pays de Montbéliard

Film production: Cie Non de Nom
In partnership with:
Le Rayon Vert, scène conventionnée de Saint-Valéry-en-Caux
Le Cratère, scène nationale d'Alès
Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
Le Manège, scène nationale de Reims
Le Channel, scène nationale de Calais
Château rouge, théâtre d'Annemasse
Festival Uzès Danse
Ars numérica
Communauté d'Agglomération du Pays de Montbéliard

The Non de Nom company is supported by the Drac Ile-de-France, and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

© FONDATION D'ENTREPRISE HERMÈS 2012