AUTONOMY OF LANDSCAPE IN THE WORK OF PHILIPPE QUESNE

Abstract

In his company Vivarium Studio and then at Nanterre-Les Amandiers, Philippe Quesne examines the relationship between art and the living world. He places onstage the branches of trees, stones, animals and atmospheric phenomena on a par with human beings. His work accompanies and questions a conceptual revolution. The living world, both plant and animal, is not for him a mere object. His theatre gives it the status of a subject. We will see how this onstage revision in the hierarchy of living creatures is based on the theory of landscape from the Renaissance to the present day, in particular by analysing his show Caspar Western Friedrich and his “mole trilogy” (Swamp Club, Crash Park and La nuit des taupes).