Ulla von Brandenburg

In Das Was Ist (‘What Is’), Ulla von Brandenburg makes the curtain, an emblematic object of theatre, the centrepiece of her installation.

15 to 31 January 2025
Performance, installation, production

In partnership with Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, as part of the SCÉNO festival

Pierced by a circle, each curtain becomes both a passageway and a viewpoint: an iris, a focal point, a perspective towards elsewhere and the distance. Passing through these openings, the audience is immersed in a succession of brightly coloured panels. The reverse side of the decor reveals another beauty: that of the traces left by the paint rollers. The work thus constitutes a promise of theatre: in the same gesture, access to fiction and its fabrication laid bare.

‘I use fabrics to create spaces in which one can pretend to be elsewhere, to fall, so to speak, into other worlds. In a space where curtains are suspended, the separation between inside and outside, or between different worlds, becomes blurred. And this blurring leads one to wonder where one is.’ Ulla von Brandenbur

€5 or free on presentation of an admission ticket to Les Abattoirs or a SCÉNO show.

Meet the guest scenographers

Ulla von Brandenburg / Aurélien Bory
Artists' dialogue.
Saturday 17 January 2025 at 6pm.

Discussions about their scenographic approaches, the dialogues will be an opportunity to compare aesthetics and approaches. As different as they may be, the SCÉNO artists have a lot to share, both theoretically and practically, about their reading of space, the way they conceive, transform or narrate it. These encounters will allow for an exchange of visions, experiences and languages.

Moderator: Lauriane Gricourt, Director of Les Abattoirs

__________________________

Ulla von Brandenburg
Ulla von Brandenburg, a world-renowned German artist, is a scenographer, visual artist, director and filmmaker. This first invitation marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between the Théâtre Garonne and Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, focusing on her work.

Born in 1974 in Karlsruhe, Ulla von Brandenburg lives and works in Paris.

Aurélien Bory
After studying physics, Aurélien Bory worked in the field of architectural acoustics before devoting himself to the performing arts. Since 2000, he has directed the Toulouse-based company 111, which employs a large number of people. There he develops physical and scenographic theatre – of space and the body – and creates protean pieces with performers from different disciplines – circus, dance, theatre, music.

Space as the first gesture
The SCÉNO festival welcomes these artists who invent forms, open up the stage and sketch out new perspectives with their gestures. A set is never neutral: it already contains, implicitly, a future play. This is the vision that SCÉNO embodies. The festival invites scenographers who are directors, visual artists and choreographers. What do they have in common? The stage, which they constantly reinvent, each in their own way. On the programme: four shows, an installation, and dialogue-based encounters to share their approaches. There will also be ‘quarter-hour scenography sessions’ offered by ENSATT students. And stage talks. SCÉNO offers an approach to theatre from its foundations: where it all begins.