Aurélien Bory And Compagnie 111 Return To BAM With Espæce

Aurélien Bory and Compagnie 111 return to BAM with Espæce, inspired by the life and work of the French writer Georges Perec--in particular, his essay collection Species of Spaces.

Perec's belief that "To live is to pass from one space to another while doing your very best not to bump yourself" serves as the starting point of Espæce (a made-up word combining the French words espèce and espace, species and space). Five performers: actor Olivier Martin Salvan, opera singer Claire Lefilliâtre, and three acrobatic dancers, find themselves in front of a gigantic black wall. They try to move it, move around it, scale it, and ignore it. But the wall continues to be both menacing and responsive. Bory, known to create theater works that pit humans against huge, sculptural sets, again finds the humanity in that negotiation, revealing his unique aesthetics of theater-making.

Aurélien Bory is the founder of Compagnie 111, based in Toulouse, France. He develops shows that cross genre lines in the performing arts (theater, circus, dance, visual arts, music). He first drew international attention with Plan B (2003) and Plus ou moins l'infini (2005), both collaborations with Phil Soltanoff. He has since created Azimut (2013 at Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence), Géométrie de caoutchouc (2011, Le Grand T, Nantes), and Sans objet (2009, Théâtre national de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-now called ThéâtredelaCité, Centre dramatique national Toulouse Occitanie-and 2012 NWF). In 2007 he created Les sept planches de la ruse (2008 NWF) with artists from Dalian, China. With a deep love for dance, Bory also collaborated with Pierre Rigal in Erection (2003) and Arrêts de jeu (2006). Bory's aesthetic is inspired by his interest in science. His works are driven by the exploration of space and the ingenious creation of scenography. Bory received the Créateur sans frontières (Creator without borders) award in 2008. Additionally, Aurélien Bory created Questcequetudeviens? (2008, Théâtre national de Bordeaux-Aquitaine) which was nominated for the best new dance production Olivier Award in 2014; Plexus (2012, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, 2016 NWF), winner of the "Joan German Schroeder" International Applause award bestowed at the FAD Sebastià Gasch Awards in Barcelona; and aSH (2018, Montpellier Danse) featuring Stéphanie Fuster, Kaori Ito, and Shantala Shivalingappa. His most recent project is the opera Orphée et Eurydice (2018, Opéra-Comique, Paris.