Fabrice Lambert

VISUAL ARTIST OF THE MOVEMENT

Biographie

As a pioneering figure of the staging of mankind’s growing hold over the natural elements, the Anthropocene, Fabrice Lambert’s work is distinguished by its undeniable ecological awareness. He is interested in the fate of the human species and explore its place in the cosmos and on earth.

As a visual artist of the movement, he conceptualizes the spaces of bodies. Through his emblematic relationship with light, he draws the extension of danced gestures. He works on the notion of body landscape, bringing to life the fundamental equation linking nature and humanity.

As a writer of dance, he creates a fine, precise, chiseled choreographic score that allows the force of energy to unfold. His aim is to bring together the mundane and the extraordinary, the natural and the mechanical, the intimate and the collective. Today, when we are concerned about our futures, his work gives us hope and nourishment.

After training at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d’Angers, Fabrice Lambert performed with the Kubilai Khan Investigations collective, the Carolyn Carlson company, and with Catherine Diverrès at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes for several years, then with François Verret, Emmanuelle Huynh and Rachid Ouramdane.

Since 2000, he has been the artistic director of The Expérience Harmaat, where he pursues his research and creative work. The Expérience Harmaat is conceived as a crossroads, that brings together creators from different art fields around the choreographer’s projects. What they have in common is that each in their own way, their work question the notions of phenomenon and movement.

Visual artists, video-makers, engineers and dancers are all involved in the creation of numerous pieces: No Body, Never Mind and TOPO (2001) are two parts of a research project on the perception of the body and its hijacking by images. This was followed by seven creations at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis: Le rêve (2002) captures the essence of this questioning through the confrontation of a film and a solo in the form of a dialogue using the same material: the performer’s body. Play Mobile (2003) explores the boundaries of this same body in an enveloping sound device, in an enclosed space that confronts it with its limits. Imposture (2004) is a piece for two performers and a video artist, taking up Paul Virilio’s idea of the integral accident. This was followed by Fréderic Lambert (2004 – commissioned by SACD / Le Sujet à Vif), Abécédaire (2005), meutes (2006), Gravité (2007), D’Eux (2008), Virga (2009 – commissioned by SACD / Le Vif du Sujet), Solaire (2010), Rites of Memory (2011) commissioned by Ahn Aesoon Dance/Korea) and, Faux Mouvement (2012). The work that follows, Nervures, is a collaboration with visual artist Xavier Veilhan, premiered in November 2013 at the Centre national de la danse and revived in January 2014 at the Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, which has regularly hosted his creations since 2012.

Jamais Assez, a piece for 10 dancers, was premiered in July 2015 at the Festival d’Avignon, then presented at the Centre Pompidou – Paris, and the Festival TransAmériques – Montreal. Aujourd’hui, Sauvage, a piece for 7 dancers and 1 musician was premiered in September 2018, at the Biennale de la danse de Lyon, then presented notably at the Centre Pompidou – Paris. Seconde Nature, a quartet in collaboration with Jacques Perconte, premieres in 2020 at the Théâtre de la Ville – Paris.

Fabrice Lambert was artist-in-residence at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin from 2012 to 2015. Since then, he has been associate artist at the Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, scène nationale, from 2016 to 2018, at the Maison de la Musique de Nanterre, scène conventionnée, from 2018 to 2022, and at the Centre des Bords de Marne du Perreux-sur-Marne, from 2020 to the end of 2023.

He becomes associate artist at the Centre des arts d’Enghien-les-Bains, scène conventionnée d’intérêt national “art et création” in September 2023 for 3 seasons.

Since 2010 and the creation of Solaire, choreographer Fabrice Lambert has embarked on an  in-depth research into the links existing between the human body, its inner dynamics and the natural elements. An exploration that takes the form of a choreographic ecology. A physical and scenographic ecosystem, directly connected to natural phenomena, seeking to question our link to the living. Reactivating the urgent need to rethink the fragile balance that unites us with our environment.”

Gilles Amalvi

L’Expérience Harmaat

A strong collective

Bringing people together is a skill. Gathering the widest possible audience and deploying the widest possible spectrum of encounters, discoveries, astonishments, explorations and practices, so that contemporary dance creation is nourished, alive and shared. So that the forces are brought together, and that ideas reach the core of all populations, even the most remote. This is what the Expérience Harmaat has been doing for the past 25 years, as a company that brings together, each year, between 20 and 30 artists, technicians, administrators, teachers, thinkers… Its team is the force that unites artists, cultural professionals and audiences. The support of the DRAC (since 2001) and local authorities enables our diverse and ambitious projects to unfold. The support of our public partners perpetuates the human and logistical resources that allows our creative research and encounter activities to take shape in a variety of often modular forms, affirming the plural identity of our company and bringing us a little closer to our audiences.

Celebrating life

For 26 years, the Expérience Harmaat has been celebrating the living world and working to reveal its positive character. In 2006, the piece Gravité drew on the very matter of water, the universal resource at the origin of all life, to bear witness to the gravitational force that structures us. In 2010, Solaire was created, in which variations in the lighting system reveal or conceal bodies in a subtle gradation of climates. Nervures, created in 2013, explores our view of the environment through the notion of landscape. In 2015, Jamais Assez reacts to the burial of nuclear waste for 100,000 years and questions mankind’s ability to conceive its own future. Aujourd’hui, Sauvage, in 2018, is a manifesto for leaving parts of our world uncultivated and undomesticated in order to regenerate our vital natural resources.
Finally, in 2020, Seconde Nature restates the Humanity/Nature equation, asserting the need for cooperation in the face of climate change.

A desirable future

How can we help create a desirable future today? How can we participate in the fight against climate change? Fabrice Lambert’s projects question these issues. The Experience Harmaat works coherently with what it stands for artistically. We believe it is vital to keep on defending the values of living together, and to this end, to promote our work as widely as possible, whether the audience is near or far and art is easily accessible or not. To do this, we develop lightweight forms that can be integrated anywhere. We invest in local areas: we are socially rooted in our residences (short or long), we are pro-active in meeting local players and creating joint projects.

We bring a positive message to young people, using art as a medium, to give them energy and confidence in the future and help them invent a desirable one.

L’Expérience Harmaat is subsidized by the DRAC Ile-de-France as a subsidized choreographic company, by the Région Ile-de-France as an aid to artistic and cultural permanence, by the Conseil départemental du Val-de-Marne as an aid to the development of artistic teams, by the Conseil départemental du Val d’Oise and regularly by the Institut Français for its tours abroad.

Landmarks

1996
Creation of Expérience Harmaat
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2001
No body, never mind

TOPO
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2002
Le Rêve
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2003
Play Mobile 
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2004
Imposture
Fréderic Lambert
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2005
Abécédaire
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2006
Meutes
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2008
D’Eux
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2009
Virga
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2011
Rites of Memory
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2012
Faux Mouvement
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2014
APPARAÎTRE !
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2018
Aujourd’hui Sauvage
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2019
Soli
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2021
EPURRS
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2023
Un mètre par seconde
¡EXALTAR!
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2025
RENVERSE
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