Qui som? / Who are we? brings together artists from a range of genres. What values or principles do you prioritize when creating as a team?

To put together a team, we need to surround ourselves with people who have dedicated many years to movement work and physical engagement, as it is the exploration of balance and imbalance that forms the central focus of our piece-writing. We write through physical engagement. We also need to find people who want to be part of a troupe, who want to take part in a collaborative project, and whose need and desire is, above all, to be part of a group.

In this work, clay—an unusual material for the stage—plays a significant role. What led you to collaborate with a ceramic artist?

Clay is a fascinating material; it embodies the notion of constant metamorphosis and transformation, for whether we let it dry, crush it or add water to it, clay can always be reused. It can convey the idea that every living being is a being of transformation. We wanted to take our work with clay further in relation to the theme of the ‘Qui som?’ project, so we enlisted the help of a professional ceramist, Sébastien De Groot, who also trained Blaï in pottery. He enabled us to work with this material with precision and to make it one of the underlying themes of the play.

Were there any challenges due to the diversity of the team?

The diversity of the performers in the Qui som? team presented a challenge. We shared a common interest in physical expression, dance and music, and this formed the basis of our dialogue. It allowed the piece to take shape precisely through the possibilities offered by listening to the body. This is what makes the piece so ensemble-based; it is written by the group.

The difficulties lay in the use of languages. We had to translate between three, or even four, languages. There were seven different languages spoken within the team, and some members did not share a common language. And the hardest part of that was undoubtedly the difficulty in making jokes together, and we love jokes! We need to laugh to cope with the sheer scale of what it means to create a show like Qui som?, given the sheer volume of work involved. Qui som? is a play that put up quite a fight, and we had to persevere through a great deal of exhaustion. But everyone showed a lot of courage, and a love for this craft that enabled each of us to reach our destination.

Why did you choose the title Qui som? / Who are we? ?

This play is called Qui som? (Who are we?), but we quickly moved away from the desire to answer this impossible question at all costs. In any case, we felt that the answer lay in the doing itself – that is, in exploring as a group how to answer this question. In other words, to frame it in these terms: what do we want to be part of? What do we want to do together? That is, to try to get closer to these needs for answers regarding our identities by asking ourselves: what are we part of? What are we saying yes to?

Message from Artists

Reaching out a play is not about creating a hiding place, safely sheltered from the world, in order to forget it; on the contrary, it is about opening up a space, trying to give ourselves the means to look at this world, to still love it, to see ourselves, to laugh at ourselves, to recognise ourselves despite the pain. It is coming together not for religious, political, family or community reasons. It is trying to recognise the dance of this chaos within us, lying in wait, waiting to be seen, to be recognised amidst a violent history that always seems to overwhelm us, yet whose roots lie within our own bodies. Live performance is not detached from this adrift world; on the contrary, art is the necessary medium for shifting and transforming our reflexes of extraction and objectification of the world.

Camille Decourtye

As the creator of Baro d’evel, Camille Decourtye is the author and performer of all the company’s shows. From her childhood spent with horses, travelling in caravans and on horseback, she retains the need to invent a way of life and research that will satisfy her need for travel and encounters. This led her to train at national circus schools and to develop experimental work on movement and voice. She continues to refine her connection and collaboration with the animals she lives with, based on the principles of ethology. Her need to express the invisible, to highlight what connects us in this damaged world, gives her the energy to question, with each project, how the conflicts and complex arrangements we make with the world are hidden within each artist and spectator. Her obsession with breaking down barriers between languages, roles and modes of experimentation makes Baro d’evel’s writing a quest for metaphysics in motion.

Blaï Mateu Trias

Creator of Baro d’evel, Blaï Mateu Trias is the author and performer of all the company’s shows. Born in Barcelona, he grew up in the post-Franco Catalan artistic scene, with two clown parents. With Circ Cric, tours alongside Tortell Poltrona and expeditions with Clowns Without Borders, he developed a taste for the intersection of languages. At the age of 16, he left to train in circus arts in France, where he settled. His encounter with a new culture opened his eyes to new possibilities, but also confirmed his attachment to his original influences: Catalonia, its architecture and painters, a political relationship with the clown and his benevolent view of the world, and the generosity and audacity of street arts. His sense of rhythm and space is the basis of his research work, and his obsession with the musicality of movement generates unique choreographic compositions. His visceral need to experiment with materials has led him to design innovative performance spaces and enabled him to question contemporary forms of composition with Baro d’evel for the past 20 years.