Performance
Latifa Laâbissi & Werner Hirsch
« Speak White », « Qui sommes-nous ? » and « Bling blings »

The event is over
Since 2018, Latifa Laâbissi and Werner Hirsch (Antonia Baehr) have been meeting regularly across the world and space for their performance Consul et Meshie, a three-and-a-half hour simian duet in a visual installation by Nadia Lauro. They are featured in the film Moving Backwards by Lorenz/Boudry, with whom they have a long-standing collaboration.
Here, Hirsch/Laâbissi play with the format of short, accumulative numbers. Speak White reactivates a text by Michèle Lalonde, a Quebec poet and playwright. Who are we? is a dance of owls that makes the fish in the ocean glow to the music of Desireless. Finally, Bling blings, an ideophone that does not reproduce the sound of chains but expresses the idea of glitter, pays tribute to Cathy Berberian for her Stripsody. .
Latifa Laâbissi is a dancer and performer. She brings onto the stage a multiple off-field where figures and voices are cut out. The use of the voice and face as a vehicle for minority states becomes inseparable from the act of dancing in Self Portrait Camouflage (2008) and Loredreamsong (2010). Continuing her reflection on the archive, she created Écran somnambule and La Part du rite (2012) based on German dance figures from the 1920s. In 2018, she created the performance Consul and Meshie with Antonia Baehr. In 2019, her creation White Dog is touring French and international festivals. This year, she created Ghost Party I and II with the visual artist Manon de Boer, consisting of a performance and a film, as well as La nuit tombe quand elle veut with the choreographer Marcelo Evelin.
Werner Hirsch grew up in West Germany. As a young adult, he emigrated to the United States to build a ranch. There he fell in love with the drag queen Agnes B., with whom he still lives. Performer, actor (Normal Work, Toxic, Charming for The Revolution and numerous productions by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, since 2007), film director (including Kings & Disasters, 2004), Werner Hirsch occasionally performs as a dancer (with Susanne Berggren, Petra Sabisch, Vincent Dupont). Thanks to the machines of musician Fred Bigot (ElectroniCat) he vocalises the voice of the road during his concerts. He also appears as Antonia Baehr, a choreographer from Berlin, or the composer Henry Wilde, among others.
Latifa Laâbissi et Werner Hirsch
© D.R.