The GPF is a surrealist-inspired duo formed by Clotilde Salmon, visual artist and author, and Sonia Kuipers, director. They combine literature and visual arts, theater and music, poetry and video to create off-ground, resolutely absurd performances.
The GPF claims multiplicity, of meanings, postures, convictions, with no obligation to perfect, but with the desire to create beauty. Flirting with the notion of the ridiculous, its performances break down stereotypes (social, sexist, artistic, etc.), isolating elements of language and the mechanisms of manipulation that ensue.
The singularity of the GPF also rests on the costumes worn by the performers. They blend realism and extrapolation by superimposing removable attributes on a real body. Out of the norm, they challenge the individual notion of the monstrous, recalling choreographer Ana Halprin’s concept: “The body is an instrument. In the face of prejudice, it becomes a political claim”.
This device blurs perceptions, has fun upsetting lines of comfort and offers, in fact, a suggestion of pure emancipation.
The Groupe Performatif Famapoil collaborates with experimental musicians, visual artists, choreographers and poets, and performs both in art galleries and institutional venues (Lafayette Anticipations, Le Générateur, le 100ECS, etc.) and in the public space. On this principle, for Van Life (a device initiated by visual artist Sarah Trouche) the collective performed in three departments of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region over ten days.
In 2018, for the Erosphère off festival, the GPF created a live show combining visual arts, video and performance, Vulnis Burger, designed to blur the viewer’s perception of the gender stereotype.
Website: https://clotildesalmon.fr/groupe-performatif-fampoil-gpf/