The term ‘cross artform’ has a great deal of currency in the performing arts today; yet how often is a work genuinely that? Most of the time, this term is used as a handle on theatre that does what theatre should, which is to make use of whatever means and forms necessary to tell its stories. Applying the term ‘cross artform’ to theatre work which makes use of, say, dancers, circus performers or puppeteers (rather than just writers, directors and actors) belies the notion that theatre is intrinsically cross artform: the ‘crossroad of all the arts’, as Jean Louis Barrault once said.

But every so often, something comes along that is a genuine crossover, a meeting between two different genres on equal terms. Something that is decisively more than an inspired director appropriating other forms into his theatre-making; a meeting of two minds (and bodies) in a head-on collision that challenges your ideas on both the artforms represented, and an interesting live demonstration of how two different artists can play off of each other. Such a work is Paso Doble, the extraordinary collaboration between choreographer Josef Nadj and visual artist Miquel Barceló which was originally created for the Festival d’Avignon, and which now comes to the Barbican as one of the highlights of the London International Mime Festival in January 2008.

Using ten tons of clay, the two (reflecting the title of the piece) create an onstage battle, with the malleable material of the floor and back wall (a kind of L-shaped clay ‘carpet’ and ‘curtain’ of red clay supported by a chicken wire and scaffolding structure) being their habitat, their battleground and their weapons. In the process of staking out their territory, parading their prowess and (ultimately) conquering or being conquered, a series of extraordinary 3D pictures, living sculptures and animations occur.  

A little background to this contest. In the red corner: Josef Nadj was born in former Yugoslavia but is now a French citizen. In Budapest he went to art school and also studied martial arts and wrestling. Once in Paris, he trained with renowned mime artists Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau whilst also taking classes in Western and Japanese dance forms. He has subsequently established a formidable reputation for a brand of movement theatre that is all his own. His continuing interest in the visual arts, and in particular in sculpture, has constantly informed his work, which often involves an exploration of the human form in relation to objects in a space. He has also created installation work in galleries.

In the other red corner: Miquel Barceló is a Catalan visual artist, an acclaimed painter, sculptor and ceramist who has represented his country at the Venice Biennale. Originally inspired by Jackson Pollock, his work is visceral and physical; an active engagement with the materials he chooses to work with. Clay has been a material of choice in much of his work, which has included the creation of a ceramic covering of the roof of the Catedral de Palma de Majorca. Previous to performing in Paso Doble he has never been on stage, but believes that painting can be pretty theatrical.

So these are our two contestants. Now, on with the show…

Paso Doble is the dance inspired by the Spanish bullfight (a dance to the death). This ‘bullfight’ starts very quietly and minimally. The lights lower and slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the back clay wall starts to bubble. Low-key sounds become more urgent, gurgles turning to gloops (the soundscape mixed live by sound artist Alaine Mahe).

Two men in dark suits appear, carrying tools. One (Barceló) works methodically, cross-hatching and creating a field of little peaks. The other man –Nadj, taller, more agitated – mostly uses his hands, scooping lumps of clay from the floor which he forms into balls and throws at the back wall, then clambering onto that wall to decorate the top edge. As each continues on their quest to make their mark, a series of images emerge from the back wall. The whole history of human mark-making seems to be represented, and as fleeting pictures of trees and animals and heavenly bodies and geometric shapes emerge only to be erased, we are reminded one minute of pre-historic cave paintings, then of Aztec walls, then of Medieval church facades. What starts as a kind of etching-style indentation into the clay moves out into embossment and then into sculpture, only to be pushed back for the process to begin again.

Just as the bullfight moves through stages with different weapons, so does this Paso Doble. The next phase begins as each man fetches a ready-made soft clay pot and places it over his head, squashing it into a mask. Ears are pulled out of the clay; eyeholes gouged with fingers or fists; nostrils moulded with thumbs. It is a very odd but completely engrossing form of instant mask-making; a wild and ferocious puppetry. The pace builds as more and more pots are brought on (and they get through a fair few of these pre-made terracotta pots, the making of which by associate artists working on the project is another interesting aspect to the work). The whole-head masks grow ever more grotesque. Where first there were odd but rather comic flowerpot men there are now grimacing gargoyles and maddened minotaurs.

In the final section of the contest, the balance of power shifts between the two: it is now clear who is the matador and who the bull. Nadj, backed against the wall, his head an enormous clay sculpture, is monstrous but vulnerable. Barceló continues to pile clay over him until eventually he is absorbed into the back wall. The human statue locked into the wall is a beautiful but terrifying image, an echo of the bodies caught in the larval rivers of Pompei after the eruption of Vesuvius; the living tissue forever merged with the mineral world.  

What’s interesting about this piece is that it feels like a real meeting of forms; the passing nature of performance meets the plasticity of 3D visual art-making, but in fact challenging the notion that the visual artist needs to create artefacts that remain to be appreciated after the making process has finished.

Originally, the idea had been for each to stick to their form; Barceló to be the maker, and Nadj the performer, perhaps working with an ensemble of dancers. But pretty early in the process, Nadj felt that this wasn’t the best way, and persuaded Barceló that he should be onstage – a suggestion he at first felt a little concerned about as a ‘non performer’. But this turns out to be an excellent decision as it is the contrast between the two men – their ways and means within the space and with the materials that they are working with in this living set – that is one of the strongest elements of the work. Yes, it is theatre but it also sculpture created live before an audience.  And somewhere in there is a wild and wonderful form of puppetry; a reminder that the essence of puppetry is the manipulation of materials and the animation – the giving of life to – the inanimate.

Paso Doble photos by Christophe Raynaud Delage.

Dorothy Max Prior attended the US premiere of Paso Doble in New York, September 2007. It is a production of the Festival d’Avignon by Josef Nadj and Miquel Barceló, and was presented by The Institut Ramon Llull in association with St Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

The UK premiere of Paso Doble will be a joint production of the London International Mime Festival and Barbican International Theatre Event (BITE) 2008.  It will be presented at the Barbican Theatre 16–19 January 2008. For details/bookings see www.mimefest.co.uk or www.barbican.org.uk/theatre

The London International Mime Festival runs from 12–27 January 2008 at a variety of venues in London, including the South Bank Centre, the ICA, Shunt Vaults, and Lyric Hammersmith. Other highlights for puppetry and animation enthusiasts include: the return of the Spanish puppeteers Teatro Corsario with Aullidos; the Faulty Optic/Mira Calix collaboration Dead Wedding; Sarah Wright’s new show Silent Tide; Russian company BlackSkyWhite’s Astronomy for Insects; and Nola Rae with her acclaimed and much-travelled Mozart Preposteroso!  For dates, times, online bookings, details on venues etc see www.mimefest.co.uk