After two years of renovation, Villa Bernasconi once again welcomes La Bâtie. The new 140 square metre basement will be the setting for a circus performance by Julian Vogel, while an exhibition by the same artist can be visited in the Villa’s halls. The public will then be guided to the banks of the Aire to watch an alternative solo version of Swan Lake by Olga Dukhovnaya in a natural setting.

Julian Vogel, China Series
China Series is presented as a score that develops in space, that can be seen and heard and even felt, if you’re close enough to the movements of the porcelain, ceramics and debris that make up these diabolos usually made out of rubber. The exhibition at Villa Bernasconi swishes with these various artefacts that Julian Vogel creates, transforms or destroys. Musician, circus and visual artist, he offers multiple variations of these toys, around which he dances and performs. Suspended, filmed or laying flat, puppet-like or as a curtain, objects and bodies blur the boundaries between performative installation, sculpture and theatre. And in their perpetual movement, Vogel’s diabolos sound a fragile mantra. Spellbinding.

Olga Dukhovnaya, Swan Lake Solo
Let’s clear up any ambiguity: Swan Lake Solo is not Princess Odette’s solo, nor is it a contemporary version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet. Swan Lake Solo is a topical dance show. On 9 March 2022, the front page of the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta featured the silhouettes of four ballerinas from Swan Lake against the background of a nuclear explosion. Since the fall of Gorbachev, television has broadcast Tchaikovsky’s ballet whenever the news gets too hot.
The war dealt a final blow to her project after two years of lockdown : Olga Dukhovnaya gave up the idea of choreographing Swan Lake for 32 dancers, an orchestra and singers, commissioned by the new Moscow museum. In an undertaking of ecological deconstruction, the Ukrainian choreographer then concentrated the entire corps de ballet in that of a single performer: herself. Together with Russian composer Anton Svetlichny, the duo tuned it to Tchaikovsky’s music that was as playful as it was respectful. An essential and dynamic dance show was born from all these constraints, giving Swan Lake Solo the tones of joyful and delightful freedom.