ARTAUD VARIATIONS

Act No. 1 — Paris, France, February 2026.

On the 28th of February 2026 at the Aleph Theater in Ivry-sur-Seine, not far from where Antonin Artaud spent his final years, the first version of ARTAUD VARIATIONS was presented to the public.

The public got to see and hear a unique combination of the text Peter Valente, the voice and electronic music of Gérard Pape, the performance art and choreography of Josef Ka , the live video transformations of Loran Qui, Music, live electronic transformations of Stefan Tiedje, and the lighting design of Samuel Lardillier.

Photography: Samuel Macé

ARTAUD VARIATIONS, ACT I, February 28th

Beyond Transgression, Beyond Theatre, Beyond Opera:

the Real of the talking body, the Real of the suffering body…

THE LAW OF THE EONS HAS ENDED.
NOW IS THE TIME OF FIRE AND DESTRUCTION:
THE HOLOCAUST OF REASON.
THE SECRET OF MADNESS IS REVEALED.
I AM GIVEN THE MEANS TO RESEARCH
THE MIND OF GOD.
I, ARTAUD, WHO AM REBORN WITHOUT A NAME.
IN THE PIT OF THE ETERNAL.

Text: Peter Valente
Voice and electronic music: Gérard Pape
Performance Art and Choreography: Josef Ka
Live video transformation: Loran Qui
Live electronic transformation: Stefan Tiedje
Photography: Samuel Macé

The evocation of the myth of the Androgyne that opens the performance —
“In ancient times our nature was not what it is now; it was very different.”
(Plato – The Symposium – 189 C – Aristophanes)

— is gradually led toward a reversal of gender polarity. The male seems to give birth to the female while simultaneously evoking the father-mother — a tutelary figure from which one must break away in order to bring forth the true being invoked by Antonin Artaud.

Leaning against Gérard Pape at the center of the stage, Josef Ka slowly slides downward as though being engendered from him. One senses in the dancer an extraordinary capacity for listening and perception, an ability to inhabit the instant as he shapes the relationship between their bodies within a delicate sensuality devoid of Eros. Meanwhile, the sprechgesang of Peter Valente’s text unfolds, altered through the live-electronic modulations of Stefan Tiedje, echoing the VJ-ing of Loran Qui, whose tawny colors initially evoke archaic cosmological elements: water, air, fire, earth, and metal.

Born from the double reversal of the father-mother couple generated by Jupiter’s division of the androgyne, Josef Ka’s body now appears asexual. Gérard Pape yields the entire space to him, moving toward the edge of the stage. Josef Ka’s body, which had seemed tiny, suddenly becomes immense, invading the entire space. The new being seizes upon the fifth element — iron — evoking the possibility of forging oneself independently, liberated from everything.

At the same time, the movements of the body enter into dialogue with the projected video elements, which transform from archaic forms into symbols, symmetries, and fractal patterns (repetitions of the same motifs at different scales), against which the blows of the forge resound — symbols of order and power against which the new being rebels, just as Artaud rebelled against language. Corresponding to this are the electronic music, the spoken voice of the text, and the alterations produced through live electronics.

“All true language is incomprehensible.”
(Ci-Gît — Gallimard 1974 — Œuvres Complètes, Vol. XII, p.95)

A circulation organizes itself among the participants. Gérard Pape’s body is also a body in action. His delivery of Peter Valente’s text is itself played through live electronics. Josef Ka’s body in action seizes not only the iron, but also the music. The VJ images provoke reactions within the new being.

The whole proposes an analogy, a kind of homeostatic regulation akin to a living organism that integrates both the noise disturbing organic balance and the vital force striving toward equilibrium, such that the sonic disturbance experienced throughout the performance itself becomes a symbol.

The whole is a tetrapod whose vibrating center, binding all parts together, is the performance itself. It opens a path toward an eminently living dimension sustained through the live interaction of all participants, continuously resonating with one another. It invites the audience to walk in Artaud’s footsteps through an invocation that is never aggressive, but intense and highly symbolic.