Madame V.

Madame V. the Fortune-teller and her Double, performance, 30.09.15, 40 min, Espace Khiasma, Les Lilas

Faced with the terrifying prospect of having to write a play on the topic of divination, Violaine Lochu decides to consult a fortune-teller to predict how the project will turn out. Based on this encounter, the artist builds a performance based not on the fortune-teller’s divinatory message, but on it’s performative and narrative components.

Taking on the role of Madame V, her “fortune-teller doppelgänger”, Violaine Lochu invites the audience to draw cards. Each card triggers an action inspired by one or more types of divination, whether it be acoustic (ornithomancy for example: divination based on bird-song, played here on a flute) or visual—the manipulation of objects filmed and projected in real time (acultomancy: the reading of nails falling onto a metal surface. Hydromancy: reading the swirling flow of ink in water).

In this performance, Violaine Lochu questions the notion of duality and transformation, while also subverting the practices of divination and, inso doing, attempts to evoke new possible futures.