Franck Krawczyk's 'In Visione (Purgatorio)' Debuts at Holland Festival

Franck Krawczyk (born 1969) composed 'In Visione (Purgatorio)', the second part of a tetralogy by dance company Emio Greco/Pieter C. Scholten based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Subtitled 'Seven Times of the Passion According to Saint Matthew' (after Bach), the work premiered on June 13, 2008 at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, co-produced by Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. The piece features seven dancers and about thirty musicians, structured around seven expressive statements from the choreographers, such as 'my body escapes me' or 'I abandon you and leave you my statue'. Krawczyk completely dismantled Bach's Passion, 'defenestrated' it, and recomposed the unrecognizable material into a homogeneous suite based on dance logic, removing the narrative as it is 'now carried by the dancers' bodies'. The composition challenges the traditional frontal concert setup, influenced by Krawczyk's collaborations with visual artist Christian Boltanski, notably their 2005 installation series 'Pleins Jours' at Théâtre du Châtelet. The finale will see dancer Emio Greco disappear behind the remnants of the orchestral body (instruments left on stage) as a choral loops from backstage, allowing each spectator to appropriate it at their own pace.