UMAA

UMAA (Unité Mobile d’Action Artistique)  creates new encounters, in the city, the neighborhood, the landscape…

Cocky Eek has been commissioned by Olivia Grandville to design a mobile structure that will extend the scope of the Centre Chorégraphique National de La Rochelle (FR). The artist has imagined an inflatable structure halfway between a living organism and a dome: a place of welcome and sensitive transformation of the artistic act. This Unité Mobile d’Action Artistique is not only an inflatable structure, but also offers the philosophical dimension of an ephemeral bubble. It is therefore a format that offers the possibility of inventing new ones, in terms of duration, space, mode of interaction or performance. This artistic encampment, set up in the public space, proposes a long dramaturgy that expands over several days, making it possible to offer long activations, landscape pieces as well as flash performances, mini-artist residencies as well as public workshops, round tables, games, concerts and screenings, an exhibition, a party…”.

Each edition of UMAA is based on a corpus of protocols, a toolbox of writing processes and choreographic forms: pre-existing, created, recycled or recontextualised for UMAA. The dramaturgy that articulates these different elements is replayed in each new venue, but its content conforms to this charter/programme, which acts like a score and articulates a diversity of modes of encounter between audiences.

…”The structure breathes in steady cycles — expansion, pause, release. Stepping inside, squeezing between its membranes, you emerge, disoriented, into pure white space. Whispers cross the dome, walls dissolve, your steps rippling through the structure. Rain transforms the breathing into percussion. Within its expanding chest, two hundred bodies learn to move together. For five years, this gentle giant will traverse rural France, dropping into communities, reshaping how people gather, move, and listen together. Air escapes through stitched seams, carrying conversations back into the world outside”…
Read more about UMAA (‘Unité Mobile d’Action Artistique’): https://anarchive.fo.am/silver/UMAA/

images by Patrick Gyger, Aurelie Gilson, Marc Domage, Cocky Eek.

presentations 24/25
· Du 8 au 12 octobre 2024 — Théâtre de la Cité internationale, Paris — Transforme, festival de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
· Du 16 au 22 janvier 2025 — La Comédie, scène nationale de Clermont-Ferrand — Transforme, festival de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
· Du 22 au 28 mars 2025 — Les SUBS , Lyon —Transforme, festival de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
· Du 16 au 24 mai 2025 — tnb, Théâtre National de Bretagne, Rennes —Transforme, festival de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
· 15-28 June 2025 avec Plateforme 10 et Vidy Lausanne, Switzerland

L’Unité mobile d’action artistique
un projet de Olivia Grandville création 2024

Première activation du 2 au 7 avril 2024 avec l’Avant-Scène Cognac

Direction artistique : Olivia Grandville
Conception : Olivia Grandville et Cocky Eek
Design : Cocky Eek et Air Design Studio Erik van Dongen
Construction : Air Toiles Concept
Pilotage et suivi technique : Matthieu Mangin
Dispositif sonore : Nicolas Barillot et Jonathan Seilman
Dispositif lumière : Abigail Fowler et Titouan Geoffroy
Création vidéo : César Vayssié
Costumes : Marion Régnier
Collaboration scénographie : James Brandily

Régie générale : Vincent Champier
Régie lumière : Titouan Geoffroy
Régie son : (En alternance) Thibaut Pellegrini et Nicolas Barillot
Régie plateau : Leslie Vignaud
Chargée de production : Anna Trottier

Production : Mille Plateaux – Centre Chorégraphique National La Rochelle – Direction Olivia Grandville
Avec le soutien de la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Coproduction : Plateforme 10, Lausanne ; L’Avant-Scène Cognac ; L’OARA Bordeaux ; CN D Centre national de la Danse, Pantin

UMAA, Unité Mobile d’Action Artistique is supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region and Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie , NL.