Jérôme Delbey
Choreography, Direction, Set and Costume design

Concept and stage direction: Jérôme Delbey

© Jérôme Delbey - ἄγγελος - 2019

From obscure etymology, maybe borrowed to the old Persian, ἄγγελος (ángelos) is an ancient Greek word with various definitions. Its first meaning is messenger. When associated with the word “Μουσῶν” ἄγγελος, it’s the messenger of the muses, the poet. It also refers to birds, to the messengers of the sky but also to the messenger of Jupiter, the nightingale. For the ancient religions, it’s the messenger of the gods Hermes or Mercury. Later on, with the coming of Christianity, it became the messenger of God, the angels and archangels. 

Jérôme Delbey’s new work was triggered by a winged “underwear” he recently modelled in plaster evoking Mercury - or Hermes, depending on the mythology - the messenger of the gods.

The piece being created within the scope of the Gothenburg international biennial for contemporary art, it’s been approached not as a dance/choreographic piece “per se” but like a visual artist.

There was no preconceived concept and the composition has been based on a more instinctive process, in the like of a painter or a sculptor, brush stroke after brush stroke, elements after elements.

A set of different and independent - but somehow connected in Jérôme Delbey’s mind - words stemmed from the idea of the “messenger of the gods”. These words and images associated with them, then, served as the starting point of choreographic tasks which were then linked together.

This approach of composition was inspired by masters like Jackson Pollock and also by Jérôme Delbey’s admiration of Robert Rauschenberg’s work who from images and objects not necessarily and/or obviously connected were, because of the artist’s association of them, creating an emotionally cohesive composition.

For Jérôme Delbey, contemporary dance is very subjective. It should be, first and foremost, an emotional and sensory experience.

This instinctive method of composition is also, to some extent, a reaction to the current, on one side, over intellectualisation and on another hand entertaining approach, of dance.

It also advocates for a theatre where, rather than being a tool or even sometimes an “excuse”, the Human/the performer and his/her inner journey is the central “reason for being” of a performance.