Mirage

A mirage is an optical phenomenon caused by atmospheric refraction, which deflects the rectilinear trajectory of light beams passing through superimposed layers of air of different temperatures. The deviation of rays gives the impression that the object seen, inverted, is in a location different than its actual location. This projection is visible to the eye, the displaced image is not just an optical illusion, it is not a hallucination, it really exists as a ‘spectral’ reflection.

This idea of the displaced image taking shape in the air is at the origin of Mirage, a work in which Olga de Soto reinvests the body and explores the possibility of a double dance, both physical and mental, in order to give shape to a scenic object made of physicalities and visible dynamics, while relying on invisible images and landscapes, conveyed in the mental space. She also renews her research on movement, and continues her plastic work and her research on perception, thanks to a first foray into the expressive worlds of the Belgian artist Sophie Whettnall and the Italian composer Fausto Romitelli. Wonderfully surrounded by Benoît Pelé's sound environment, conceived from the sounds of a world in danger of extinction, and the light entrusted to Philippe Gladieux, the bodies of the five dancers enter into a constant dialogue with sound, light and material. An exciting and generous conversation between visual art and choreography.

Thus, the choreographer gives shape to a dance carried, projected, displaced; a sometimes suspended, vaporous dance, a dance of silence amid the shrill tumult of our world. A dance of withdrawal, a dance of abstraction, but also a dance in varying densities, extending in a spatiotemporal environment, which refuses excess. It becomes the result of an infinite multitude of traces, gathering a multiplicity of times in the present moment.

In Mirage, Olga de Soto chooses the body in opposition to a "loss of body", and probes sensory paths in order to question, through movement and gesture, a dance that can resonate in the imaginary.“

The Spanish choreographer, dancer and dance researcher Olga de Soto is based in Brussels since 1990. In her well-filled career, she has worked together with important choreographers such as Michèle Anne De Mey, Meg Stuart, Boris Charmatz and Jerôme Bel, with whom she collaborated as choreographic assistant and performer. On his legendary performance The Show Must Go On, De Soto's works often probe the role of our memory and are presented worldwide, from Sweden to Chile, from Turkey to Brazil, from Centre Pompidou to Kunstenfestivaldesarts. In 2013 de Soto received the Prix SACD Spectacle Vivant for her work.

The performance Mirage has been conceived in such a way that it can be shifted from the theatre’s stage to the exhibition space, thus becoming Mirage – displacement.