Boris Charmatz

Curated by Muriel Enjalran.

As part of its 40th anniversary, the Frac is supported by the Banque Palatine Fondation Galeries Lafayette, the Château Bonisson and Crosscall.

Le Frac is inviting this major international figure of contemporary dance to present a set of films looking back at his choreographic research through emblematic dance pieces. For the occasion, the Frac is producing a new film with the artist, on a recent choreographic piece, a whistled solo entitled SOMNOLE (2021), of which he will present a preview.

Photographie extraite du film Danse gâchée dans l’herbe, 2023 ; réalisation César Vayssié.
Chorégraphie Boris Charmatz ; interprétation Marion Barbeau.

This exhibition will invite visitors to enter into a hand-to-hand combat with the screens, to confront large tableaux vivants summoning both a history of contemporary dance and a history of art and painting. It is the first time that an art institution will be dedicating an exhibition to the film work of this artist who has always been interested in contemporary art, and made performative incursions into it.

Dance pieces with his company [terrain] will be presented over the course of a weekend in the Frac’s spaces.

A dancer, choreographer, and also creator of experimental projects like the ephemeral school Bocal, the Musée de la danse, and [terrain], Boris Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints that redefine its field of possibilities. From 2009 to 2018, Boris Charmatz was director of the Musée de la danse, Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne. In January 2019 he launched [terrain], a company based in the Hauts-de-France region, working with Le Phénix in Valenciennes, the Opéra de Lille, and the Maison de la Culture d’Amiens. Boris Charmatz is also an artist supported by Charleroi danse (Belgium) from 2018 to 2022.

From À bras-le-corps (1993) to SOMNOLE (2021), he created a series of milestone pieces, including Att enen tionon (1996), enfant (2011)—created for the Cour d’Honneur at the Festival d’Avignon — and 10000 gestes (2017). He is the author of several books (Entretenir / à propos d’une danse contemporaine, 2003, co-written with Isabelle Launay; Je suis une école, 2009), and is also an actor and improvisor (having worked with Odile Duboc, Médéric Collignon, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Tino Sehgal).

In 2021, Boris Charmatz performed La Ronde as part of the event Avant-travaux. For the opening of the Grand Palais Éphémère, the Grand Palais invited Boris Charmatz to orchestrate a performance for 130 dancers, entitled Happening Tempête. In July 2021, he opened the Manchester International Festival with Sea Change, a choreographic performance in public space with 150 amateur and professional dancers.

In August 2022, Boris Charmatz was appointed director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch where, with [terrain], he will develop a new project between Germany and France.