Point Nemo

"Also, to this question posed six thousand years ago by Ecclesiastes: "Who has ever been able to plumb the depths of the abyss? ", two men among all men now have the right to answer. Captain Nemo and I*." Jules Verne

At the genesis of this artistic project, led by the Belgian collective FC Bergman, which brings together Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans and Marie Vinck, is a score: Drumming, the longest work ever written by the American Steve Reich. In 1970, returning from a trip to Ghana where he had studied African percussion, he spent a year composing this extraordinary piece, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on 3 September 1971. Based on a single rhythmic motif, Drumming can appear to be repetitive, and perhaps static, music. Yet, the composer employs the phasing technique, which he then mastered perfectly, and the work constantly changes, thereby creating a different relationship to time for the listener. Often cited to illustrate the minimalist music movement, Drumming mobilises percussion as well as voice, and even silence. FC Bergman draws the source of its inspiration from this approach, which is both musical and transcendental. As the idea of Point Nemo emerged on the horizon of this new creation, the project of an abstract response to abstract music blossomed. Indeed, what better for the FC Bergman collective, whose work revolves around the "vast world" and humanity's quest for bearings in a space-time where everyone seeks their place, than Point Nemo, the place furthest from any inhabited land? Except that, here, Point Nemo is not understood in its literal sense, but rather figuratively, like a cemetery of hope, where any attempt to control existence would be futile. Adapted, shaped and dictated by the music, the stage installation gradually becomes the main character of this show. Conceived as a performance and devoid of text, Point Nemo is a wandering