Michel Jaffrennou's Algo Ritmo Blends Cinema, Theater, and Digital Memory at Centre des Arts, Enghien

Michel Jaffrennou's performance 'Algo Ritmo' premiered on June 16, 2012, at the Centre des Arts in Enghien. The piece centers on a white screen of nine equal squares on stage, surrounded by an invisible six-meter virtual black screen. Actors use white cardboard squares to catch images projected by an infrared camera that tracks their movements. The work merges cinema and theater, with performers Stéphane Giletta (Algo) and Richard Sandra (Ritmo) acting as image handlers, creating the illusion of continuity between the real and virtual screens. The performance evokes early cinema devices, such as intertitles from silent films, and references the magic of Georges Méliès. Norbert Hillaire's review highlights that digital technologies serve as tools for reappropriation and memory of older devices. The production involves a collective creation with diverse skills: sound sculpture by Cécile Babiole, images by Julien Bozzato, software and tracking by Xavier Descarpentries, sequence coordination by Edourad Lecomte via iPad, technical inventiveness by Marc Marchand and his team (Et Alors production), and production by Catherine Zbinden. Hillaire argues that this model offers an alternative economy for digital arts, bridging industrial and contemporary art economies, and blurring the lines between popular and high art through elements like barcodes, accordions, children's tales, and Jaffrennou's personal mythopoiesis.