une exposition
Philippe Decouflé: a master of movement in dance, cinema and performance
A leading figure in the French nouvelle vague of the 1980s, Philippe Decouflé is an out-and-out pioneer in French choreography. His fame has now spread abroad, making him an internationally acclaimed celebrity. A feature of Decouflé’s work is its versatility and ceaseless exploration of the medium’s potential. His creations, straddling dance, film and live performance, bring fantastic, joyful, constantly changing worlds to life. Central to Decouflé’s creations are his costumes. He works closely with renowned fashion designers, turning costumes into the outright stars of his inventions, in which performance and fashion are inextricably intertwined.
The “Planète(s) Decouflé” exhibition is accompanied by a book that explores the sources of the choreographer’s creativeness. Fully illustrated with photographs and drawings, the book also pays tribute to the couturiers Decouflé has worked with, such as Philippe Guillotel, Laurence Chalou and Jean Malo.
The volume opens with a section titled “ABCDecouflé”, guiding the reader step by step through the architecture of the choreographer’s imagination. The book highlights Decouflé’s powers of metamorphosis and wit, bringing together tailoring skills and shadow play, rock and sport, to conjure up an idiom that reflects the breadth of his artistic vision. An essay on the play Tricodex and previously unpublished interviews with fashion designers and Decouflé offer a privileged insight into his creative processes. Lastly, sketches from the choreographer’s notebooks and pictures showing the layout of the exhibition provide a different perspective of his work, a landmark in contemporary dance.
This book and the exhibition it accompanies take us on an immersive journey through the many facets of this visionary artist, ranging from the choreographies for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville to his collaborations with Cirque du Soleil.
Philippe Noisette, a Paris Match and Les Echos performing arts critic, is the author of the book Couturiers de la danse (2003) and conducted a dance season at the Vuitton Fondation in Paris (2017), as well as organizing the “Couturiers de la danse” exhibition at the Centre National du Costume et de la Scène, in Moulins in 2019.