Moon / Cabinet de curiosités lunaires

14 MINUTES

Two gravity-defying performances play with the physics of life on Earth

The French performance artist Bastien Dausse built the ‘contemporary circus company’ Compagnie Barks around his abiding ‘desire to play with gravity’. This reality-bending video features two performances from Compagnie Barks’s show Moon / Cabinet de curiosités lunaires (2022). In the first, titled la bascule (or the seesaw), Dausse secures the French performance artist Julieta Salz into a weighted device he invented to simulate the gravity of the Moon, which is one-sixth of Earth’s. Dausse, still bound by the pull of our planet, then assists Salz as she moves through a series of transfixing acrobatic movements. In the second, titled la Table et chaises (or the Table and chairs), Dausse and Salz move across a set of a table and two chairs, with each object having only two legs affixed to the ground, all set against a forest background. Each of these performances juxtaposes the rules of our everyday world with elements that seem to challenge them, encouraging viewers to reconsider the familiar.

Via The Kid Should See This

Directors: Bastien Dausse, Marc Lahore

Performers: Julieta Salz, Bastien Dausse

Website: Compagnie Barks

Explore more

People dancing at an outdoor festival, colourful tents in background, clear blue sky overhead.
MUSIC

The beats that make us want to move

Some musical rhythms are built to get us bobbing, foot-tapping or dancing. Researchers show how rhythmic complexity matters

by Matt Huston

Illustration of a scoreboard at Barclays Center showing a man with raised arms, surrounded by an arena.

A dancing NBA superfan on the joy of spaces that let us go wild and get weird

Directed by Mickey Duzyj

Four people swimming in a lake surrounded by foggy hills under a cloudy sky.

How to take the plunge – from cold showers to icy swims

There’s growing evidence for the psychological and health benefits of cold-water immersion. Here’s how to get started

by Jenny Favell

Marble statue of a sleeping man with curly hair lying on fabric, arm draped over his head.

The ancients dreamt the same dreams as us

There is something comforting about realising that, even in Homer’s day, people wondered what the hell their dreams meant

by Sam Dresser

Photo of a person speaking into a microphone holding an electric string instrument with a choir in the background.

The barbarians are at the gates in this electric Laurie Anderson performance

Video by All Arts

A waterfall under a stormy sky with mist and a building on the left cliff surrounded by trees in the background.

How to think about the sublime

An exquisite mix of fear and awe, pleasure and pain, the sublime stretches the imagination and reveals the limits of reason

by Nicole A Hall

Desert with a blurred yellow road sign and distant hills under a blue sky.
Psyche Exclusive

Ride along on a road trip suffused with LSD, petty theft and true love

Directed by Aric Allen

A Nigerian ballerina in a white tutu dancing atop yellow minibuses in a crowded urban setting.
DANCE

Nigeria’s first ballet school brings tutus and joy to the streets of Lagos

Directed by Jacob Krupnick