DESSIN DANSANT

2025/26

Participatory drawing action with ad hoc dance interpretation by Olivia Lecomte. The action took place on the occasion of the closing event of "DESSIN, mort ou vif", at the REDAKTION, Himmelrichstrasse 4, Lucerne.
DESSIN DANSANT is a further development of the work “Come if you Dare” and explores the translation between drawing, movement, and collective action.

The starting point is a large-format projection of the video work “Come if you Dare,” in which dancer Olivia Lecomte physically reacts to my drawing “Come if you Dare.” This drawing is itself an interpretation of a 16th-century copperplate engraving (see “Video”). The projection for DESSIN DANSANT is transferred directly onto the back of the original drawing, turning it into a drawing surface once again.
Visitors were invited to follow the dancer's movements with felt-tip pens, finger paints, charcoal, or oil pastels and to trace them in their drawings. In doing so, they themselves also began to move: drawing became a physical act, a following, an accompanying, a translating. In the course of this collective phase, a multi-layered drawing emerged from overlapping traces. An open structure of individual gestures and collective condensation.
The resulting drawing was then translated back into movement by Olivia Lecomte in a live performance. Drawing, body, and interpretation formed a continuous cycle: from drawing to movement, from movement to drawing, and back again to the body.

DESSIN DANSANT understands drawing not as a finished image, but as a process. The work addresses questions of authorship, translation, and temporality, and understands drawing as a physical, collective practice; as a temporary archive of movement and perception.

Materials: Plotter paper approx. 150 × 300 cm, projector, drawing materials (felt-tip pens, oil pastels, finger paints)