©Yanita Mircheva
The performance starts with the extreme roaring of a compressor and an armada of blue inflatable mattresses covering the floor. Nicolas onsets the action of blowing-up one air mattress out of his lung while Zabo with the compressor and a foot pump manages to inflate ten of them. The prepared bed "Princess of the Pea" is ready. Wind instruments (three melodicas, a harmonica, two whistles and a flute) are mounted on the valves and keyboards slipped between the mattresses. To play this Gargantuan monolith wind instrument Nicolas and Zabo embark by jumping on the top and pitching, struggling against the elements (air and gravity) triggered by the deflation, even going overboard...While the accomplices have the impression of drifting on the raft of the Medusa, the tension rises in the public which howls of compassion, witnesses of a catastrophe in the making, until the moment of grace where they finally manage to tame the instrument by holding on to each other, resting all the way through the slow descent while a tortuous cacophonous sound comes out of the valves. Once the deflation is getting closer to the ground, Zabo connects a megaphone to amplify the last breath of the instrument while Nicolas rolls the mattresses into a solid rock. The piece ends as they let themselves fall backwards still holding on to the rock and to one another. Nothing else mattress...
Collaboration Tales, "Post-Coital Sadness". Curators: Delphine Marinier et Lan Hungh
(EXstat² ). Mois de la performance, Berlin 16/05/2015.