Performance
SINGSPIELE
FOCUS: Maguy Marin
Museum Auditorium
22 NOV 2026 | 4:00 PM & 7:00 PM

Single Ticket: €7.50
Students/Youth, 65+, and Friends of Serralves: €3.75

Concept: Maguy Marin
Performer: David Mambouch
Scenography: Benjamin Lebreton
Lighting: Alexandre Bénéteaud
Sound Design: David Mambouch
Sound: Antoine Garry
Costume Production Support: Nelly Geyres
Executive Production: Extrapole
Duration: 1 hour

“Each person's story is shaped by their limitless need for recognition; friendship is the name we give to this infinite capacity for recognition. To imagine that this constant need belongs to the other person, that the other, like ourselves, is at the mercy of this demand and committed to seeking a response, that they consume themselves and become like an animal if no response comes, is an obligation we owe them. And when we fail, that is the hell of life. The path of recognition is infinite: we take two steps forward, we cannot do everything, but no one dares justify, except with a touch of cynicism, retreating from such a task...” (1)

It was from this fragment of a text by Robert Antelme that we sought, in this work, to devote space and attention to faces, anonymous or recognizable, which, as they appear, capture our gaze through the strangeness of an immediately intelligible perception. A process of listening to what these faces tell us, clearly or obscurely, about their absent bodies, and to the unique stories these silent faces carry, stories that will always remain beyond our grasp. They speak to us from a place that Jean-Luc Nancy describes as “the speech of the absence of speech”, a place “before or after language”. (2)

What irreducible mysteries hide behind this constellation of sensations that comes from encountering another person? From encountering another face? An epiphany that exceeds expression itself, revealing the invisible essence of the unique individual standing before us.

Maguy Marin

(1) Robert Antelme: Les principes à l’épreuve, article published on 14 July 1958 in the journal le 14 juillet, created by Dionys Mascolo and Jean Schuster, included in Robert Antelme - textes inédits sur « L’espèce humaine » essais et témoignages, Gallimard Editions.
(2) Nancy, J.-L., Penser l’image, Paris, Les Presses du réel, 2010, pp. 68-69.

Who is this character of a thousand faces, embodying a multitude of people and gazes as they slowly move from one side of the stage to the other? The enigma remains intact, as each face is swiftly replaced by another. Before our eyes unfolds the captivating spectacle of an individual who continually shapes and reshapes themselves, successively donning all kinds of clothing and accessories at an impeccably calculated pace.

In his solitude, the man who brings these new identities to life combines them with gestures and attitudes that constantly reveal new meanings, previously unseen perspectives, and unexpected narratives. Yet this is also a perpetual subversion of the codes and functions associated with them. Masculinity slips into femininity, the statue of an ancient warrior becomes a Pietà, the ordinary man collapsed upon himself rises as a media beast. David Mambouch, the extraordinary performer of this piece, is utterly mesmerizing in these transformations performed in full view of the audience.

Agnès Izrine