Works » Zeurope

I worked with Federico Fazzi to the video design for Zeurope, theatre piece by Natacha Kantor, based on the original script by Manuela Morgaine. The project has been supported by the Ministry of Communication with the found Dispositif pour la Création Artistique Multimédia and produced by Banal Molotov with the support of Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains.
 
 

Theme of the piece

Zeurope by Natacha Kantor

Zeurope relies on a myth, the one of the kidnapping of Europa by Zeus. Europa, the ancient texts reveal, was a young Phoenician princess by whom the big Zeus was interested. Zeus, metamorphosed in a bull, both to hide himself from his jealous wife Hera and not to scare the young maiden, kidnapped and brought her, on his bull-like back, through the Aegean See to Crete. It’s where, under a platan, that the act was consumed.
 
Among other divine honours, Zues willed that Europa, after her death gave her name at the continent, where she was not born.
 
 

Video stage
The video system is circular, but the perception of the spectators is limited and related to their position. As the metopes in Greek temples, the screen beneath the fronton, where the action has place, visualize the iconic data underlining the narrated theme.
 
Sixteen screens are arranged by four colors. Red for earth : the labyrinth and the hole in the ground. Green for tree : metamorphosis and evolution. Blue for voyage : from Tyr to Gortyn, and through killed time. Gray for the crown : floral and royal. The inner movements of the images suggest circularity and continuity of the subjects. Their concatenation is characterized by slow metamorphosis. Screens are employed as light sources. They function as thermometers transposing the stage temperature.