Fléau

Whips clap and bang, hit the ground, split the air, whirl and dance. Four performers transcend time to the mesmerising sound of whips. Geoffray transforms the intrinsic violence of this instrument of power into a dance rhythm with beats reminiscent of a trance.

Fléau is inspired by the Geisslenchlöpfer, the Swiss whip crackers from the canton of Schwyz and the Chlauschlöfpe from the district of Lenzburg, a centuries-old tradition that builds on pagan and archaic customs and dates back to at least the 16th century in Switzerland. It was usually done in the middle of the night to drive out demons and winter thanks to the deafening sound of whips or to summon good spirits to the rhythm of cracking.

Alternating between a single person and a choir, between female and male performers, these gestures and sounds appeal to the collective imagination, opening various iconographic registers.

At the intersection of photography, installation art and performance, Agnès Geoffray questions the suggestive power of images in a universe of latent and mysterious tensions. The ideas of control, of being under influence, of domination and of resistance of bodies take a central place in her research.