Nova XX

In December, NOVA_XX will take place at Le Générateur in Gentilly—a partner of the Biennale for the past three editions—with an evening of performances featuring projects selected by the Selection Committee, composed of Anne Dreyfus, Camille Martin, Clément Thibault, Elise Bergonzi, Etienne Blanchot, Myriama Idir, and Vincent Crapon.

NICKEL is a solo work currently in development that navigates between dance, performance, and the visual arts, centered on an ambivalent clown figure who is at once fragile, offbeat, and deeply contemporary. Through this work, Pauline Brun explores the boundaries between laughter and unease, the grotesque and emotion, playfulness and collapse. A distorted body, thwarted movements, repurposed objects, and a constantly shifting set design come together to form a unique choreographic language in which the absurd becomes a powerful revelation of our vulnerabilities.

Drawing inspiration from clown aesthetics as well as horror cinema, performance art, and the visual arts, the artist develops a visual and choreographic exploration in which every movement challenges the norms of the body and representation. Blending dark humor, strangeness, and poetry, NICKEL paints a portrait of a solitary figure who transforms failure, discomfort, and dislocation into a powerful playground.