Archaea by Mylène Benoit

“Archee is a research on the place of women in the world, today and in history.

This choreographic and musical project calls into question the symbolic, political, social or intimate equality between women and men, based on initiation rituals – contemporary or ancestral – which mark out the course of individuals.

He was born in 2017 in Japan, while I was in residence for 4 months at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto. There I met a group of women practicing Kyudo, traditional Japanese archery (literal “The way of the bow”). I was struck by the partition between the covered space from which women were shooting, and the one – lit by the moon and the night – in which the arrows shot towards the targets. Women referees responded with cries to those of the women archers. There was a place, rules and ancestral rituals invested by women, which represented a world without men, and which I perceived as a fiction: a place of the past or a novel of anticipation. A proposal for matriarchy.

On returning from Japan, I started researching the term “mentrification” which has been popping up on the internet for a few months. This neologism refers to the “invisibilization” of women in history. For centuries, even millennia, women have been deprived of the recognition of their knowledge, their inventions, and the fruits of their research.

I envision Archee as a piece of anticipation on the very old question of matriarchy as an alternative organization of the world. This project is crossed by a feminist and environmental thought to summon the vertigo of our origins and our uncertain future. It aims to probe the history of the world and invent rituals of reappropriation of female gestures that have disappeared from the official history of humanity.

I work with 9 women dancers, singers, musicians; from different horizons (Israel, Chile, Sweden, Taiwan, France…) on modes of revolt which draw from fiction, from bodies armed with bows or by dancing, singing and shouting.

Archée aims to overcome reciprocal adversity, to summon a fair memory, in order to repair ourselves, to rearm together the future of men and women. “

Mylène Benoit

ARCHÉE (Creation 2021)
With Célia Gondol, Hanna Hedman, Sophie Lebre, Agnès Potié, Marcela Santander Corvalán, Tamar Shelef, Wan-Lun Yu
And the musicians Pénélope Michel, Annabelle Playe

Concept, direction Mylène Benoit
Choreography Mylène Benoit with Célia Gondol, Hanna Hedman, Sophie Lebre, Agnès Potié, Marcela Santander Corvalán, Tamar Shelef, Wan-Lun Yu
Music and voice creation Pénélope Michel and Annabelle Playe, Anne-Laure Poulain
Dramaturgy Céline Cartillier
Dramaturgie sonore Manuel Coursin
Collaboration artistique Magda Kachouche
Scenography Rachel Garcia
Scenography intern Angèle Guilly
Light Rima Ben Brahim
Costumes Frederick Denis, assisted by Louise Dael
Maeva Cunci Accessories
Sharing of voice and body practices Emilie Domergue (Scream and saturated voice), Marie-Pascale Dubé (Throat singing), Laurence Oriou (Kyudo), Nina Santes (body and voice work), Corine Sombrun / TranceScience Research Institute (Trance)
Technical direction Caroline Carliez, Greg Leteneur, Franck Titecat
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Production manager Fanny Virelizier
Administration Sarah Calvez
Production, distribution, communication Camille Martin-Sermolini

This project was developed during a residency by Mylène Benoît in 2017 at Villa Kujoyama with the support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation and the Institut français.
Progressive Contour Production
Coproduction
Avignon Festival
The phoenix national scene European center of creation in Valenciennes
National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) (TAIPEI, Taiwan)
Beauvaisis Theater, Beauvais National Stage
Les Quinconces and L’Espal, National stage of Le Mans
VIADANSE- Direction Fattoumi / Lamoureux – CCN de Bourgogne France-Comté in Belfort
The Hauts-de-France CDCN interchange
La Manufacture CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine BordeauxLa Rochelle
Maison de la Culture d’Amiens European center for creation and production
The imprint, Brive-Tulle national scene
Chaillot – National Dance Theater
Roubaix Hauts-de-France National Choreographic Center – Sylvain Groud
Montpellier 13 Vents Theater CDN
Maubuisson Abbey with Villa Kujoyama
Festival NEXT
The CDCN Roubaix Gymnasium – Hauts-de-France

With the support of
Hauts-de-France region, Drac Hauts-de-France, Institut Français, European Metropolis of Lille, City of Lille, Art Zoyd, and for the 75th edition of the Festival d’Avignon: Spedidam

Acknowledgments Claire Bisman – Midwife, Catherine Boucher and the practitioners of the Kyudo du Mans club, The National Kyudo Committee, Charlotte Fouchet-Ishii – director of Villa Kujoyama, Carole Fritz – scientific director of the Chauvet cave, Florence Gravas – philosopher, Claire Harsany – advisor, Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, Tokiko Ihara – musician of Sho, Gaëtane Jonnequin – midwife, Cho-Pei Kao – National Theater & Concert Hall Taiwan, Masako Kotera – cultural officer, Villa Kujoyama , Anne Leroy – midwife, Pierrette Le Berre – history-geography teacher, retired, Meryem Le Saget, Elaine Liu – National Theater & Concert Hall Taiwan, Pi-Chen Liu – ethnologist, specialist in native matrilineal societies in Taiwan, Sumiko Oe-Gottini – artistic advisor for Villa Kujoyama, Laurent Pirard – communication manager CNKyudo, Cyril Seassau.

Avignon Festival 2021
Celestine Cloister
From Saturday July 17, 2021 to Friday July 23, 2021
22:00