‘‘I am always searching for new ways to de-sacralise the elitism that surrounds the art world”: with these words the South African choreographer Robyn Orlin sets the tone for the creation of a show that works its way through the halls of the Lille Palais des Beaux-Arts.

This highly original project is one of her most a propos, notably because it puts museum guards in direct contact with the audience. In 2002, Robyn Orlin launched a series of shows titled Babysitting that she created especially for museums. After the Alte Nationalgalerie of Berlin (2002), the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2004) and the Louvre museum (2009), she is now taking on the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Lille.

A living space open to all, a place of exposure and discovery, of conservation, of history, the museum is also the daily work place of guards who welcome the public and ensure the security of people and works of art. They are babysitters of a very particular kind, who take care of paintings and sculptures, and also a very curious “Wax Head”, from which the show derives its title. This wax work, whose origin remains a mystery, requires constant attention because its shape is constantly at the mercy of the elements. If the weather is too hot, the wax melts; if it is too cold, it collapses in tears.

The exhibition Les Fables du paysage Flamand au XVI^e siècle is reachable to the spectators of Babysitting Wax head before the representations from 6 p.m. till 6:45 p.m.

Direction Robyn Orlin
Artistic collaboration Stéphanie Magnant
Video Philippe Lainé
Costumes Olivier Bériot
Technical assistance Thabo Pule

With

Actor Robert Colman
Dancers Bérengère Bodin, Anne Bogard, Makambamba Elisabeth Tambwe, Thulani Zwane
Lyric singer Rodrigo Ferreira

With the active participation of agents from Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille Benoît Cellier, Alain Darrou, Nathalie Martinache, Boniface Metangmo, Alioune Sow

2 PERFORMANCES OUT OF THE OPERA :

TALES OF THE BODILESS [RÉCITS DE SANS-CORPS]
BY ESZTER SALAMON

Fr 25 january at 8 PM, Vivat la danse !  Festival Opening Performance
(Tickets 18 €)
Duration : 1h15 without intermission 
Reduced-price tickets for Lille Opera subscribers & Liberty Card holders, - 26 year old, students and groups (13 €), - 12 year old (6 €)

Performances at Vivat - Place Saint-Vaast à Armentières

Eszter Salamon perfectly masters one particular art: that of the surprise. Those who saw her show  And Then, presented at the Lille Opera in 2009, won’t say the contrary. At the cross point of the visual arts and music, the Hungarian choreographer returns to take us on an exploration of what the world might be without bodies.  How can one extract oneself from one’s own body ? For how long can we remain outside of ourselves … before we lose ourselves definitively? The answers can be found in the Vivat d’Armentieres.

DE QUOI TENIR JUSQU’À L’OMBRE
CHRISTIAN RIZZO
CREATION 2013 BY LA COMPAGNIE DE L’OISEAU-MOUCHE

Thu 24 january, Fr 1st february at 8.30PM & Sa 26, We 30 january at 7PM
(Tickets 12 €)
Duration : 1h15 without intermission.
All performances are available for visual deficients persons. 
Reduced-price tickets for Lille Opera subscribers & Liberty Card holders, - 26 year old, students and groups(10 €)

Performances at Théâtre de l’Oiseau-Mouche / Le Garage 28 avenue des Nations Unies in Roubaix.

[...] These exchanges on questions of being in the world, of beauty and death, constitute the foundations of the show that Christian Rizzo has dreamed up with players from l’Oiseau-Mouche, a company based in Roubaix for the mentally challenged. Each of their creations is the fruit of an encounter with a guest artist. Christian Rizzo answered the call with his characteristic enthusiasm for new adventures. ‘‘When I launched the idea, it struck a right resonance, sometimes troubling, maybe more so than with the people with whom I usually work,” he admitted at the start of rehearsals. Initiated during his residence at the Lille Opera from 2007 to 2012, this collaboration offers a new dimension to Christian Rizzo’s presence in the Nord-Pas de Calais, the region he has now adopted as his base in the pursuit of his artistic activities.

TRANSPORT : Buses departing from Lille Opera will drive the public to these performances 
Booking : T.0820 48 9000 / billetterie@opera-lille.fr