Spoilsport. Curious collections and disquieting things.

Do inanimate objects have a soul, a part of humanity locked inside them? The primal terror or the familiar feeling of strangeness we sometimes experience upon encountering them unveil an unconscious part of us: the one we meet in our dreams. That's what Spoilsport is about. A reminder of our unconscious and its malfunctions... In this installation conceived as the last part of a triptych, after her show Lewis versus Alice and her book Zone Céleste, Macha Makeïeff displays the words of her brother Georges. Like Lewis Caroll, Georges would invent stories featuring little girls trapped in imaginary worlds. His own wonderland had been built during an interrupted, stupefied childhood. In the hallways and rooms of the Maison Jean Vilar, their words echo each other in a concert of strange beasts, distended sounds, and reflecting mirrors. A stroll through sensations in a house haunted by benevolent objects salvaged from workshops and found forgotten in drawers, museum storerooms, and by the side of stages.

A writer, plastic artist, and director of La Criée, Centre dramatique national de Marseille, Macha Makeïeff loves to explore the pleasure of the eyes as much as that of words and bodies. At the theatre and the opera, and in museums, she creates sets and costumes, and acts as director. Lewis Carroll was the ideal author to venture into the pleasure brought by the contradictions of language and to explore dreams and the supernatural. During the Festival d'Avignon, Macha Makeïeff will present, at the Maison Jean Vilar, Spoilsport, Curious Collections and Disquieting Things, an echo to the creation of Lewis versus Alice.

An exhibition by Macha Makeïeff
Scenography Macha Makeïeff assisted by Clémence Bezat
Sound creation Christian Sebille
Lights creation François Menou

Production Association Jean Vilar
Coproduction Festival d'Avignon, La Criée Théâtre national de Marseille, GMEM - Centre national de création musicale - Marseille
With the support of Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Ville d'Aix-en-Provence, Muséum d'histoire naturelle d'Aix-en-Provence
With the help of Fondation Cartier
In partnership with Pavillon Bosio école supérieure d'arts plastiques de la Ville de Monaco