RUINES

Ruines grew out of the idea of a conflict between beauty and violence. It is this conflict, this tension, that the performers explore. It raises a question: is it our gaze that transfigures reality, and to what extent are we the agents of that transfiguration? For where there is conflict, there is not necessarily opposition. Ruines draws its inspiration from the Christian iconography of lamentation. As in the paintings of Titian or El Greco, with their faces of the Virgin at the foot of Calvary—faces marked by grief—it is an emotion the greatest artists have sought to express, one that runs through the entire history of art. Grief, but also ecstasy.
Like that of Saint Teresa of Ávila, like a light radiating from within. A play of light and hollows, of forms that cling and scrape: an open mouth is, in painting, a stain; in sculpture, a hollow that can make a face look twisted and grimacing. It can also express a cry of beauty—think of Stendhal syndrome, the unsettling dizziness that overwhelms some viewers struck by the beauty of a work of art.
Watching and watched, lifting and lifted, drawing on modern wrestling techniques, the duo formed by Jérémy Kouyoumdjian and Sylvère Lamotte is also directly inspired by mixed martial arts (MMA) and free fighting—full-contact combat techniques that range from striking to grappling, combining kicks, knee strikes, throws, and ground-and-pound. Between violence and fascination, these extreme confrontations aim to reveal the beauty hidden even in such places. Seeking beauty in violence, the sacred in the profane, and the other way around. Always transfiguring, always seeking wonder.