Mannequin
De Montage
Tuesday 28 & Wednesday 29 July, 2015
George Bernard Shaw Theatre, RADA, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7JN
Genesis
De Montage Art Collective is an interdisciplinary group of artists seeking to explore the most relevant contemporary issues by collaborating with specialists from the fields of Science, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology.
About
MANNEQUIN tells the story of Ania, clone of Anna, a deceased famous singer. Raised to be a perfect copy – declaring her disregard for originality by simulating her genetic predecessor, yet all the while grasping at an unattainable sense of uniqueness that she so desperately craves – Ania recounts Anna’s life, of which she has learnt through the distorted lens of popular culture. Forced to come to terms with her inability to match Anna, Ania must confront her own lack of individuality. No longer able to copy Anna, yet bereft of an identity of her own, she reaches an impasse. Inspired by the ideas of Baudrillard, MANNEQUIN explores the nature and importance of originality in the context of a culture that continually finds new in the old and increasingly blurs the line between copy and creation.
Music: Maria Vatenina
Words: De Montage Art Collective, Tamsin Collison and an extract from the epigraph to AnnaAkhmatova’s Prologue Or a Dream within a Dream,1942
Animation Artist: Izabela Barszcz
Assistant Animation Artists: Dayashini Pomphrey, Maria Turska
Costume Designers & Stylists: Eiko Yoshizumi, Margot Waggoner-‐Prabhu
Hair & Makeup Artist: Ziima Nakajima
Lighting Designer: Miena Mizusaki
Script Consultant: Shaun D. Pattinson
Script Editor: Nikita Vatenin
Videographer: Jacob Larys
Camera Assistant: Honza Topinka
Photographer: Anna Barsukova
Marketing Manager: Anna Kujawska
Soprano (Anna & Ania): Héloïse Werner
Tenor Saxophone & Clarinet: Sue Lynch
Percussion: Ana Gasco Gomez
Piano: William Cole
Music: Maria Vatenina
Words: De Montage Art Collective, Tamsin Collison and an extract from the epigraph to AnnaAkhmatova’s Prologue Or a Dream within a Dream,1942
Animation Artist: Izabela Barszcz
Assistant Animation Artists: Dayashini Pomphrey, Maria Turska
Costume Designers & Stylists: Eiko Yoshizumi, Margot Waggoner-‐Prabhu
Hair & Makeup Artist: Ziima Nakajima
Lighting Designer: Miena Mizusaki
Script Consultant: Shaun D. Pattinson
Script Editor: Nikita Vatenin
Videographer: Jacob Larys
Camera Assistant: Honza Topinka
Photographer: Anna Barsukova
Marketing Manager: Anna Kujawska
Soprano (Anna & Ania): Héloïse Werner
Tenor Saxophone & Clarinet: Sue Lynch
Percussion: Ana Gasco Gomez
Piano: William Cole
Maria Vatenina is a Russian composer based in London. She studied composition and music theory at the St Petersburg State Conservatory and undertook a Masters at the Royal College of Music, supported by the Joseph Clover Award. Her music is regularly performed in London and internationally.MANNEQUIN is her first opera.
Izabela Barszcz is an award-‐winning animation artist and producer. Her work has been screened in festivals across London, Europe and the USA. Her student film Enter the Circus was long-‐listed for a BAFTA nomination. She directed and produced an award-‐winning animated music video for Canadian band Barenaked Ladies.
Tamsin Collison (librettist) is delighted to be part of Tête: à Tête: The Opera Festival 2015. MANNEQUIN is her
fourth contribution to the festival, following Love Bytes (composer: Cheryl Frances Hoad), Cat-‐Astrophe
(composer: John Webb) and 2013’s BASCA Award-‐winning Dart’s Love (composer: Kerry Andew). This is her first collaboration with De Montage Art Collective.
Héloïse Werner (born in Paris) was a member of the Maîtrise de Radio France.She then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was also a choral scholar. She is a singer and Co-‐director for London-‐based contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment – Park Lane Group Young Artists 2015-‐16.
Sue Lynch works as an improviser in experimental music and jazz. She curates The Horse Music Club at I’Klectik Art’s Lab in South London, with Adam Bohman. She studied Fine Art at Coventry College Of Art. In the 1980s, she toured internationally with The Happy End Big Band.
William Cole’s compositions have been heard at venues across the UK, with recent performances from the Britten Sinfonia, Ian Pace, The Hermes Experiment and Peter Sheppard Skaerved at the Three Choirs and City of London Festivals, and on BBC Radio 3. He is also active as a conductor, pianist, singer and writer on music.
Ana Gasco Gomez is a Spanish percussionist. After finishing her studies with distinction at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, she came to London, where she studied as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music. She has performed internationally in venuesacross Spain, Italy, Canada, Mexico and England.
Shaun Pattinson is Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at Durham University. His principal publications are Influencing Traits Before Birth (2002) and Medical Law and Ethics (4th edn, 2014). The second edition of Medical Law and Ethics was awarded the 2010 Minty Medico-‐Legal Society Prize for best medico-‐legal book.
Eiko Yoshizumi is a headpiece designer and a visual artist based in London. Originally from Osaka, Eiko moved to London in 2014 to study Millinery. Eiko studied Fashion Design and Art and Technology at the Kobe Design University. She started her own headwear label (VoH) in 2014.
Miena Mizusaki was born in Japan and now lives and works in London. She has trained in lighting for the performing arts – where her interest in light, colour and perception originated – and has subsequently worked internationally in this particular field. Through her work, she seeks to express the temporary, ephemeral nature of light and colour.