The setting is an apartment, bare and ordinary enough for “any one” to imagine as their own. We see objects and shapes evoking the function and atmosphere of the space, objects and shapes whose exact appearance has been erased from memory. It is a space void of all pretence of either realism or theatre, that invites the audience to look into, rather than at it. It is a space cleared to make room for a dream. Not a dream as in a surreal image, allusion or metaphor, but rather, a virtual space of representability, without representations. 

“Inouï” takes us through different thresholds of consciousness, an experience intensified by soundscapes and light filters altering textures, skin and tactile surfaces. A space where distance and depth create short-circuits in both objective and subjective reality. The audience experiences the indescribable and incomparable immanent presence of all things: is this the absence of self? Or the self’s full presence? A wave of raw experience, like rediscovering sight or sound. It is both a fable and a dance of disparate elements woven together by the mind. One by one and one to one, seven dancers separate and join together. Bodies, eyes, voices, halts, breaths, almost unseen, almost unheard. INOUI is a sight never seen, INOUI is NU (naked), is UN (one) is NOUS (us) is OUI (yes)…. 

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