A taxi driver, an architect and the High Line

Emmanuelle Huynh & Jocelyn Cottencin

6 Feb — 30 Apr 2016

A taxi driver, an architect and the High Line is a film trilogy. This is a portrait of the city of New York through three characters and their relationship to space and architecture. The first two characters are human (Phil Moore is a taxi driver, Rick Bell is an architect), the third is a monument: the High Line. The High Line is metaphorically considered a person that passes through the city reveals and provokes the encounter between individuals and stories.

Films gather physical memories, stories and intimate spaces. Each of them moves between fiction, documentary, performance and poetry. The project is primarily a dialogue with each of the protagonists, a search through their physical memory and personal history. Gestures, movements, paths are identified and deployed in the city. They can be viewed as displaced in their original context. In counterpoint, the perspective on New York focusses on daily activities, work-related gestures and the rhythm of the city.

A taxi driver, an architect and the High Line is also an artistic adventure shared by a choreographer and a visual artist in which they constantly questions the field of one another. The danced gesture, as discreet and intimate as it is, is the tool for urban experimentation and definition. The video installation’s space and temporality become the support to be turn back into play in the dance performance.

Production : Compagnie Mùa

Coproduction :
Les Services culturels de l’Ambassade de France à New York.
Le Quartz - Scène nationale de Brest.
Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain, Brest.

Remerciements : The AIA New York, the Center for Architecture in New York, the MOMA PS1, the Queens Museum, le Musée de la Danse - Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne, La Criée centre d'art contemporain de Rennes, Xavier Leroy, Ben Evans et Esther Welger-Barboza.

Une performance chorégraphique d’Emmanuelle Huynh et Jocelyn Cottencin viendra activer l’exposition les 4 et 5 mars 2016 dans le cadre de DañsFabrik – festival de Brest.

Commissaire de l'exposition / Curator : Etienne Bernard