”Mountain / Fountain” is the result of a partnership between Pierre Droulers and the plastic artist Michel François, the author of the narrative that runs through this piece: the Japanese Emperor Mikado ordered all the objects in his realm to be assembled in his palace so that he could make a final inventory of them. A task that was clearly both impossible and absurd, resulting in aberrant classifications, such as those between full and empty objects.  Twenty-five years on, when someone risked asking the Emperor the reason for such an undertaking, he had vanished beneath the multitude of objects piled up. This mountain of dead materials (”Mountain” in the title) contrasted with the human activity (”Fountain”) that was deployed all around.  

”Mountain” 

Materials and objects are laid on the ground and form an inventory.  A movement is organised to store them. This activity, obsessional, gives off something as vain as it is essential. Fill yourself with it like a ritual whose meaning remains mysterious. Dances, games, new forms emerge from these objects wakened from their sleep to form a series of pieces following on from one another. At the same time as the dances, like objects, the video images (courtesy of Michel François) form dreams of materials that combine: earth, gap, wood, hands, feet, they grasp the gesture: take, pass, pick up, twist, crush, fold, tear, stack. 

”Fountain” 

takes on again the forms of”Mountain”.  The objects have vanished, the bodies have stored them in their memory and play on their absence. The tyranny of objects gives way to appeasement. The choreography, like a never-ending flow, drains a series of dreamt materials.  The liquid side of the minerality of ”Mountain”, the metaphor of endless flow, ”Fountain” forms the liquid element that hugs outlines, rounds off edges, fills holes, and is constantly regenerated. 

Source: Théâtre de la Bastille (1995) programme 

Press extract 

Inspired by the legend of the emperor Mikado, who carried out an inventory of all the objects in his realm, ”Mountain/Fountain”  proceeds by accumulation and clearance of stones, tins, beads. A physical game, very noisy, of dummy storage, that disrupts and brutalises space; the dancers have no scruples about rushing spontaneously onto the stage. The dance thus progresses by sudden changes in mood and fits of anger, then remaining stock still in freeze frames. 

Source: https://www.chronicart.com (Rosita Boisseau, 01/08/1999) 

After three years of artistic training at Mudra, the multidisciplinary school founded by Maurice Béjart in Brussels, Pierre Droulers continued his training in Poland with Grotowski. He participated in Robert Wilson’s workshops in Paris. During a trip to New York in 1978, he discovered the work of the Judson Church, and returned to dance after seeing Steve Paxton at St Mark’s Church.

He created a solo in Brussels with Steve Lacy, saxophonist and composer (Hedges, 1979). After working on various projects as a choreographer (Tao, with Sherryl Sutton, 1980 - Tips, with the future Grand Magasin, 1982 - Pieces for Nothing, with Minimal Compact, 1983 - Miserere, with Winston Tong and Sussan Deihim, 1985 - Remains, with Steve Lacy, 1991, etc.) or as a performer (with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Michèle Anne De Mey from 1986 to 1989, among others), he created a work in two parts based on Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, in which he performed in a variety of ways, incorporating acting, dance, talking and music (Comme si on était leurs Petits Poucets, 1991, and Jamais de l'Abîme, 1993).

The question of form and the construction of a work led to abstraction, disposing of the theatricality which hindered him. He settled the issue of objects with Michel François (Mountain/Fountain, 1995), and explored light and emptiness with Ann Veronica Janssens – artists aroused his interest in matter (De l’Air et du Vent, 1996). He alternated between small and large forms, feeling the necessity to be closer to the performer. Petites Formes, 1997, invited four performers – Stefan Dreher, Thomas Hauert, Tijen Lawton and Celia Hope-Simpson – each to create a small form alongside the one Pierre Droulers created for them. Multum in Parvo, at the KunstenFestivaldesarts,1998, questioned the notion of mass once again with its 26 dancers. In 2000, Pierre Droulers staged MA at the Festival d’Automne with Michel François, Ann Veronica Janssens and Yuji Oshima – a stroll through the architecture of modern cities. In 2001, he returned to the stage with Sames, a duo with Stefan Dreher about the question of doubles and the notions of same and different.

Simultaneously Pierre Droulers opened a venue in Marseille, the Bird Studio, for hosting artistic residencies and north-south migrations on the site of Cap 15, with its various studios for artistes.

In 2003 he was given a free hand for a production at the Balsamine in Brussels. Dealing with several venues, moments and artistes (Vélo and Scrub Color II by Ann Veronica Janssens ; Alu by Michel François ; La Maison de Jan Hoet by Koen Theys), this single, unified event presents an itinerary, a pathway between dance, the visual arts and sound that marks a return to small-scale form (Parades) and to group composition/improvisation (Appartement).

In 2004 he produced Inouï, which was presented in Belgium, France and Germany. In 2005 he took part in the Agora project presented in the grounds of the Parc Royal in Brussels as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, on which he collaborated with the artist Simon Siegmann, the composer George Van Dam and the writer Jean-Michel Espitallier.

After Flowers, piece for 8 dancers created inside the Charleroi Danses Biennal and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2007, and All in All, commissioned by the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Pierre Droulers presented his piece Walk Talk Chalk, at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2009. In 2010, he recreated de l’air et du vent he presented among others in May 2011 at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris. The piece is still touring.

Pierre Droulers is now associate artist at Charleroi Danses, the Choreographic Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

Soleils, Pierre Droulers’ last creation, has been created in May 2013 during the Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

Updating : July 2014