MARIE-LUCE NADAL

OPERA PALATINE / LA PART DES AUTRES
2018

L'Opéra  Palatine is a reproduction of an Italian-style theater on the scale of Marie-Luce Nadal's mouth. On the stage, the artist presents a readaptation of Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo. Her tongue, her teeth, and even her saliva become the main actors of this peculiar dramatic opera.  The entrance of the theater is equipped with a proscenium that can accommodate an orchestra. The upper frame, made of brass, is a reinterpretation of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel. 

« Tu se’ morta, mia vita, ed io respiro? »

(Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo, Acte II)

After discovering the incredible proportions and the stripped-down style of the inside of her mouth during a toothbrushing session, the artist ironically decides to turn it into a theater. The mouth opera celebrates the micro-elements that inhabit the vessels of our bodies and control our behaviors, without us having the slightest idea.