Research project (2023)

If, like us, you wonder what a cell without membrane might look like, or what a mass spectrometer might be used for; if, like us, you don't know that yeast has hidden superpowers, or what would happen if you were sitting in a nuclear reactor; if, like us, you still don't know "What, Where, When, How, Why?": Le triangle d'incertitude is for you.

For a few months, I read scientific articles in a wide variety of fields. I only understood a small part of them, but I realised that sometimes certain words or phenomena could open a door to a whole other world than that of rationality.

I decided to interview 10 scientists / researchers with these 3 questions:
- What are you working on?
- In your scientific language, are there terms that have an unexpected poetic dimension, that create unintentional images, or double meanings out of their context?
- How does your research develop in your mind?

"Time is really critical." Andreas Riedo – astrophysicist

These interviews became the starting point for improvisations with Nina Richard, Moritz Alfons, and a whole tribe of more or less everyday, more or less incongruous objects (thanks to them, we could give a certain materiality to abstract phenomena).

With physics, neuroscience, astrophysics, geology, geography, biology and mathematics as unusual sources of inspiration, we created micro landscapes, micro dances and micro performances.

All the disciplines we explored overlap in one (or more) of these three major scientific and philosophical questions: time, space and life. We attempt to grasp a few snippets of the "great universal knowledge", and to pass on our modest understanding of it, in our own way.

The results aren't always there, but our quest for meaning, pragmatic and metaphysical, is as exciting and uncertain as catching a sliding soap.

Le triangle d’incertitude takes the form of a video with live commentary, in English (40 min).

Conception / performance: Blandine Pinon ; collaboration / performance: Nina Maria Richard, Moritz Alfons ; outside eye: Prune Beuchat ; production: Irene Andreetto

Scientists interviewed: F. Benitez (physics), M. Casteran (neurosciences), P. Fromont (astrophysics), B. Fromont (astrophysics), P. Hebinger (geology), V. Pinon (microelectronics), G. Raton (geography), A. Riedo (astrophysics), F. Labroussaa (biology), L. Studer (maths)

With the kind support of: SWISSLOS / Kultur Kanton Bern, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, L'Oriental Vevey, BETA Stage Festival Bern, Lichtspiel Bern.

Steps: from 21. to 25.03.23 @ PROGR - Atelier 313 + from 23. to 27.05.23 @ Bern + from 30.08 to 01.09.23 @ L'Oriental - Vevey

Performances: 20. + 24.09.23 @ Lichtspiel - Bern + 21.09.23 @ PROGR Bern as part of the BETA Stage Festival 2023

(photos: T. Bellecave)