Theater tent

Johann Le Guillerm „Terces“

France

The magic of objects: An old acquaintance returns to the Tollwood Winter Festival – and brings with him a piece of astonishing poetry: With “Terces”, Johann Le Guillerm presents a world in which machines breathe, objects dance and the laws of physics seem to be poetically suspended. The French artist, tinkerer and visionary transforms the theater tent on the Theresienwiese into a laboratory of the senses from November 25.

Johann Le Guillerm is not a circus artist in the conventional sense. He is an inventor, constructor, researcher and a great self-dramatizer. With a long coat, penetrating gaze and the aura of a magician, he stands on stage and sets his self-built machines in motion with a slight point of the finger, a breath, a small gesture. His apparatuses, such as wheels, spirals and vehicles reminiscent of snail shells, as well as stars that dissolve – they all move as if by themselves. What drives them is not visible. It is the power of thought, of playing with matter, balance and movement. It is the magic of objects.

“Terces” – read backwards: “secret” – is the third part of a long-term project. After “Secret” (2003) and “Secret – temps 2” (2012), with which he wowed audiences at Tollwood in 2013, Johann Le Guillerm has transformed his work once again. The new piece rethinks the world – as a place that is constantly changing. “Terces” is not a classic circus piece, not a narrative with a beginning and an end.

It is an experimental set-up in which amazement reigns. The viewer enters a space in which questions are more important than answers: How does movement work? What do we really know? And how can we live in a world that is constantly changing? The stage is not a backdrop, but a workshop. Johann Le Guillerm, award-winning artist (Grand Prix National du Cirque – 1996, Prix des Arts du Cirque SACD – 2005, Grand Prix SACD – 2017), becomes a juggler, tightrope walker, acrobat and tamer of his own inventions. Sometimes he appears mischievous, sometimes serious. But he is always present and highly concentrated, but never aloof. He invites the audience to think, feel and question along with him. “Terces” is an invitation to see the world anew – not as a spectacle, but as moving, living matter.

The interplay of light, sound and construction creates an almost meditative atmosphere. Without any technical tricks or illusions in the classical sense. Everything that moves, really moves. And therein lies the magic of the objects. The music by Alexandre Piques underlines this impression: sometimes minimalist, sometimes driving, but never superficial.

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Foto: Philippe Laurençon

© Philippe Laurençon