HypnoQueen performance with Julien Desprez (guitar), 30 min, présentée le 22.10.17 lors du festival de performance FRASQ au Générateur, à Gentilly

During a year-long residency at the Les Arcades preparatory school in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Violaine Lochu conducted research on hypnagogy—a modified state of consciousness that takes place at the time of falling asleep—with the help of a hypnotherapist and a sophrologist. During these sessions, she experienced sensations, images and memories that did not directly belong to her. Depending on the time in which one lives, or one’s cultural or religious upbringing, these phenomena are called sensory processing disorders, archetypes or the collective unconscious, past lives. . .

Based on this experiment, Violaine Lochu constructs a performance featuring the different mental states she experienced. Her body becomes in turn mineral, animal, vegetable, mechanical, hermaphrodite. . .  calling into question the very principle of a unique identity, and of certain dualisms (nature vs nurture, masculine vs feminine, human vs animal) with a preference for trembling and the spaces in between.