Mari(e)-Mari(e)

In the beginning of May, I worked on a collaborative project facilitated by the French Cultural Center in Yogyakarta (Lembaga Indonesia Perancis, LIP) for their spring festival. The project, 'Mari(e)-Mari(e)', involved a five-day intensive collaboration between two French artists; Marie Laborelle, a fashion designer, Marie Barbottin, a contemporary dancer, two Indonesian artists; Nita Azhar, a fashion designer, and Fitri Setyaningsih, a contemporary dancer and choreographer, and me. The aim of the project was to approach fashion from a dance standpoint, and vice-versa. Working with two fashion designers coming from very different processes, it was the goal of the dancers to explore the materials that we were being provided with to create movement, character and interaction. Later, we brought in a group of musicians, who improvised to our movements. We created a loose structure for the performance, within which most of the movement between us and our costumes was improvised. The creation of the entire piece was influenced by the idea of the 'banyan tree'. 'Mari(e)-Mari(e)' was performed to a packed audience for one night only under the stars at Sri Sasanti Restaurant and Gallery in Yogyakarta.