“La langue brisée (1) tells the story of my relationship with the piece Two discussions of an anterior event: a 2004 work by choreographer Jennifer Lacey, which I discovered one day through a video. Using the pronoun “she”, I speak of the work as a lover. I built on the story of my experience as a spectator by reproducing the choreography of the original piece, and also transforming the movements that touched me to make them my own… I use Two discussions of an anterior event as a jumping off point to talk about my own work and adopt a (self) critical view, and as a kind of coming out.   

As Buffard As Possible is a lecture-performance based on a journal I wrote during the summer of 2017 while creating La langue brisée (3). For this solo, I wanted to place two works by choreographer Alain Buffard (1960-2013) in dialogue: My lunch with Anna (2005) a film in which he interviews American choreographer Anna Halprin and Dispositifs 3.1, his 2001 piece, featuring the character of Heidi. 

My desire to further explore the character of Heidi served as a starting point to develop a performance which features a video remake in which my grandparents play the roles of Alain Buffard and Anna Halprin, and an exploration of the work of the first lesbian rock group, the Flying Lesbians, formed in Germany in the 1970s. My process journal for La langue brisée served as raw material for the performance. On stage, readings from the journal are accompanied by videos, songs, images and the feminist choir Hot Bodies (Paris) covering a song by the Flying Lesbians.” 

Source: programme of festival MOVE 2020, Centre Pompidou

An artist and researcher, Pauline L. Boulba has written performances and texts (essays, rap, poems) which draw on her experiences as a spectator of work shown in particular at the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers or the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale. From 2015 to 2017, she created a series of solos entitled La Langue brisée. Her work is nourished by her various artistic collaborations with Sorour Darabi (Savušun), Anne-Lise Le Gac (La caresse du coma) and Pol Pi (Ecce (H)omo), as well as interventions with students (Département Danse of Paris 8 and Formation Exerce at the CCN of Montpellier).