Dominique
2020
Narrative performance
Studio Thor, Brussels, pictures credit Michel Christelbach
In september 2016 after a family death, I had to take care of the legal procedure and immerse myself in the administrative documents. While rummaging through closets, files, and computer, I sometimes came across more intimate writings, life stories, photos, and family films. I discovered more about who this woman was, I observed her life and her personal story which resonated with the more global history of a country.
It is the life of this woman that I want to pass on, the life of Dominique, as an anonymous monument within the historical accounts.
Dominique
2020
Studio Thor, Brussels
This performance uses different archives and a superposition of often contradictory points of view on the same person. These contradictions are revealed by the discovery of family secrets, brought to light by extensive research by Dominique during her life.
First, there is the presence of the narrator/performer who welcomes the audience, warns them of the documentary aspect of the story, and begins a chronological narration in the third person, dwelling mainly on facts and dates. He develops his story while blowing up increasingly large red balloons.
His speech is interrupted by the reading of documents written by Dominique, the main « character ». These first-person texts use a lexical field close to psychoanalysis, and take an analytical look at significant, or even traumatic events of her life.
To the words are added the images of Dominique's father, through the projection of extracts from his amateur 8mm films, in which he staged family life. These images span several decades and show us the evolution of her body from childhood to adulthood, as well as the environment in which she grew up.
In addition to the father’s images, press articles reveal us the professional career of Dominique. These images/texts that she has kept all her life have an authentic and historical aspect, but by their clumsy cut out of Dominique’s hands, they are also relics of a subjective glory.
Dominique
2020
Studio Thor, Brussels