Mathurin Bolze is one of a number of young French soloists at this year's LIMF who show an interest in worlds that deny gravity its usual order. Fenêtres, inspired by Italo Calvino's stories of a reclusive Baron and Bolze's experiences of training in conditions of weightlessness, takes place on a trampoline floor and in what is best described as the skeleton of a tree-house.
Travel in Bolze's world is via aerial corridors, seen only by the effects on his body as he literally bounces around the room. His twisting orbits centre around the objects in the room and at times he seems to freeze in space as he slides into resting on a ledge or perched on a chair. This suspension of time and motion is accentuated by the costumes he dons, especially a fetching slate-grey dress that, as he straight back somersaults, flows out behind him, creating a visual echo of his movement pathway. When Bolze does come to rest he retains a quality of levitation, even as he washes himself from an iron washtub.
There is more than a touch of the surreal in Bolze's world and his arboreal retreat from gravity is replete with glimpses of characters disconnected from the gravitational norms of society. A clucking featherless bird, a chanteuse who delicately invites us to examine her form, and a one-man orchestra of kazoo, horn, cymbal and amplified trampoline springs. This cacophony of image, sound and sensation leaves you with the belief you too can fly away from the dead weight of the real world.