Calori & Maillard "L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) - A Ballet for Tower Cranes"

Letizia Calori (1986, Bologna, IT) Städelschule Frankfurt am Main
Violette Maillard (1984, Bourg La Reine, FR) Städelschule Frankfurt am Main

In their works, Calori & Maillard establish a connection between real and imagined spaces, places, and stories, in order to blur the fine line between art and life, and create an interstice, enabling a rethinking of familiar structures. Shiny metal arms, wiry and bulky they populate the sky. The Rhine-Main area contains more and more construction sites, occupied by tower cranes, an expression of blooming wealth. But what happens, when the construction site is transformed into a stage and the cranes become dancers? The artist duo Calori & Maillard created a ballet for such tower cranes. The title of the work »L’Oiseau du feu (The Firebird)- A Ballet for Tower Cranes« refers to a ballet in two acts with music by Igor Strawinsky, after the libretto by Michel Fokine. It tells the story of prince Ivan Zarewitsch, who follows the fire bird into the garden of the wizard Kastschej. Ivan falls in love with one of the 13 imprisoned virgins. Hence, the wizard wants to kill the prince. In great trouble, Ivan calls upon the fire bird, who makes Kastschej dance by means of magic music. The bird sings the wizard to sleep and thus succeeds in freeing Ivan and the 13 virgins. With the help of model cranes, Calori & Maillard explained their choreography to the workers. This prompted a chain of translations – into different languages as well as into the correct terms – from »en face«, »soutenu« and »pliés« to the required degree of crane rotation. The first part, a »pas de deux« of cranes at the Offenbach harbor, is exhibited as a video work in the Ölhalle (a former warehouse for storing oil. The second part will be presented as a performance of tower cranes at the Maintower building site in Frankfurt. 

Link: http://2014.festivaljungertalente.de/sites/2014.festivaljungertalente.de/files/fdjt_zeitung.pdf

Text was part of: FdjT (Festival der jungen Talente) occurs every two years in either Offenbach or Frankfurt am Main. One of FdjT’s aims is to facilitate collaboration between students working across arts disciplines by supporting the production of new works.
In 2014 FdjT takes place from 19. - 21. September at the Offenbach Harbour, an industrial area on the cusp of extensive redevelopment. FdjT places an emphasis on temporality which corresponds to the transience of the festival site buildings, the Lokschuppen and the Ölhalle, which will be torn down after the festival. Alongside these spaces, new works have also been created for the EVO Halle, the Boxclub and the Main.