Éric Minh Cuong Castaing et Anne-Sophie Turion

A graduate of GOBELINS Paris, choreographer and visual artist Eric Minh Cuong Castaing worked for several years as a graphic artist in the animated film industry. His interest in real-time choreography led him to hip-hop in 1997, then Butoh and contemporary dance. With his dance company, Shonen (the Japanese word for a young boy), Castaing brings together dance, new technologies (humanoid robots, drones, augmented reality, etc.) and the body, in productions, installations, performances and films. His work has been shown in France and Europe (Palais de Tokyo, Tanzhaus NRW Dusseldorf, Festival de Marseille, Charleroidanse, Nuit Blanche Paris 2018, etc.) and has won a number of prizes (Audi Talents 2017, Beaurmarchais-SACD Dance Award, LE BAL/ADAGP Young Artists Prize, 2021). In 2020 Castaing was appointed associate artist at the Comédie de Valence, prior to which he was an associate artist at the Ballet National de Marseille (2016-2019).

Anne-Sophie Turion is a visual and performance artist. Both on stage and in the public space, her performances, sound creations and visual works ambush reality, toppling it towards the realm of fiction. In 2014 Turion and Jeanne Moynot founded Le Parc à Themes, a company whose productions span visual art and performance. Turion’s work has been presented at festivals (Actoral in Marseille, Hors Pistes – Centre Pompidou in Paris, Drodesera in Dro, Italy), and is included in Marseille’s regional contemporary art collection (FRAC PACA). Her Belles Plantes production had the support of the Fondation Hermès “New Settings” programme.

Hiku refers to the social phenomenon in Japan of hikikomori, whereby young adults and adolescents purposely withdraw from the outside world and isolate themselves in their bedrooms. Encompassing dance, sound and video, Hiku was based on two modes of exploration. The first was to collect documentary materials from the families of hikikomori and explore online virtual worlds, in order to reproduce the real and virtual spaces in which hikikomori live. The second was to organise dance workshops for hikikomori who had embarked on a path to rejoin society, with the help of organisations in Kyoto. From virtual, forgotten bodies to flesh and blood, from isolation to physical contact, Hiku attempts to make visible these unrepresented people who are trying to find a way to exist.

 ©Paul Lehr

©shonen-marc-da-cunha-lopes

©Gabriel Buret

©Shonen Insolence Productions