4 (a) ch/cords is a performance that explores attachment, that ambivalent force binding us to those we love, to the places that are dear to us, to the land and to our history. This attachment is rooted in love: for the other, for life, for the place where we are, for the Earth itself. It is a double bond, both constraining and vital: it can imprison us as much as it gives us the energy to persist, to move forward and to get through hardship.
The installation is activated by a body that enters the space and winds itself around four ropes stretched across the room, following a precise activation score. Between the tension of these bonds and the will to break free of them, a sudden fall suspends the body in space. Suspended, it becomes a matter for questioning, a stranger to this environment, clinging to the space like a sculpture or a living photograph. An ethereal song, from elsewhere, accompanies this body, rocks it and gradually releases it from its imprisonment.
The performance ends with a final tightening of the ropes, which remain stretched in the space like a swing. The audience is invited to touch them, explore them and find their balance on them, extending the experience of attachment through a bodily relationship, both intimate and open.
Technical details
Title 4 (a) ch/cords
Year 2019
Medium Performance and installation: ropes, carabiners, body and song
Dimensions Site-specific installation, variable dimensions
Concept Daniel Nicolaevsky
Video Gabriel Moraes Aquino
Singing Maïlys Arbaoui Westphal
Presentations Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts exhibition, Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris, 2019; Demain sera un autre jour, Grandes Serres de Pantin, 2021; Festival Envers du Décor #8, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, 2025; A Private Affair, Cloud Seven, Brussels, 2024
Photos Quentin Chevrier, Anne Volery, Anthony Clergue
Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris, 2019, avec Maïlys Arbaoui Westphal au chant. Vidéo : Gabriel Moraes Aquino
Press
TF1+ report
