Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods
Born in New Orleans (USA), Meg Stuart studied dance in New York. Her first evening-length production, Disfigure Study (1991), launched her choreographic career in Europe and the USA. The "disfiguration" in question - inspired by Francis Bacon's paintings - is more than just a casual statement, it shapes a genuine behaviour pattern that will constantly question the body and its place in society. Having settled in Brussels, dancer, performer and choreographer Meg Stuart created her company, Damaged Goods, in 1994. The term "goods" relate to production lines of a socio-economic system that dooms mankind to reification; the dancing body, in its very resistance, would be particularly revealing. As for "damaged," it refers to social relationships and their rigid codes that debase surges of love (Forgeries, Love and Other Matters, 2004), pervade the entertainment industry (It's Not Funny, 2006), make "natural" disasters worse (Blessed, 2007) and poison the family (Do Animals Cry, 2009). It is every time through the disfiguration experienced by distorted bodies, plunged into unstable states, unexpected associations, bordered and haunted by destruction, that Meg Stuart bets on beauty and a share of truth. At the crossroads of dance, theatre, music and visual arts, she encourages the body to open up to every possibility, going so far as to confront them to the invisible with VIOLET. At the Festival d'Avignon, Meg Stuart presented Forgeries, Love and Other Matters with Benoît Lachambre and Hahn Rowe in 2004.
JLP, May, 2011.