The "Mutant Stage" Project
"Mutant Stage" is a series of choreographed short films initiated by Amélie Couillard and Dimitri Chamblas and produced by Lafayette Anticipation – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette during the renovation of its building between 2015 to 2017. Seven films have already been produced; they were directed respectively by Wendy Morgan, Elen Usdin, Benjamin Millepied and Olga Dukhovnaya & Konstantin Lipatov, Louise Hémon, Frédéric Lebain & Grégoire Pédron, and (LA)HORDE. Volmir Cordeiro, Pauline Simon, Jung-Ae Kim, Amalia Alba, Florence Casanave, Lisa Miramond, Annabelle Pirlot, Olga Dukhovnaya, Benjamin Millepied, Alix Eynaudi, Matthieu Barbin, Manuela Carneiro, Keem-S Martinez, Jakub Moravec, Jakub Sonnek and Michal Zdražil have already danced in the Fondation’s future site.
Throughout the renovation conducted by OMA and Rem Koolhaas, and until the public opening of the Fondation in Autumn 2017, the building at 9 rue du Plâtre is the object of an investigation into its own mutation as the evolving architecture is measured over the months by in situ encounters of directors and performers. Initiated by the Fondation with the curators Amélie Couillaud and Dimitri Chamblas, each shoot is the opportunity for a different encounter that sets bodies and matter into motion, animating the changing building. "Mutant Stage" stems from Lafayette Anticipation's pre-launch programme, open to emerging performance art and contemporary dance scenes.
Thus "Mutant Stage" pulses both within the building, and beyond, into the centre of the city. The title of the project is inspired by a Rem Koolhaas expression that encapsulates the essence of Lafayette Anticipation’s building performative architecture and the commitment of the institution to the hybridisation of art and life. Each film in the series, shaped by the visual vocabulary of dance, cinema and architecture, is a singular object, existing in multiple fields at once. In this way, 9 rue du Plâtre remains a space for invitation and experimentation, a building in motion.
