m.a.d. - about you
(2021)

m.a.d. - about you 20 minutes live video performance followed by a short encounter and discussion with the artist The COVID crisis as well as the virulent political inequalities in our capitalist, racist, sexist and ableist neoliberal society, highlight the vital importance of interpersonal relationships, solidarity, community building and radical care as necessary survival strategies in a hostile environment. Based on their latest stage work m.a.d. co-produced by Tanzhaus Zürich, Valerie Reding created the live video performance m.a.d. - about you in 2021 in co-production with TROIS C-L Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois (LU) and ZÜRICH TANZT festival (CH). In collaboration with video artists Nora Smith and Mahalia Giotto of the collective Oil Productions from Lausanne (CH), m.a.d. - about you is a solo and more personal exploration of the relationship with the other - and the self. This multilayered video performance is composed of unseen footage from the stage work m.a.d., video clips from Valerie Reding’s live performance captured by several different cameras, behind the scenes footage and computer-generated imagery (CGI) created by Nora Smith. With music created by Ivy Monteiro and a collage of intimate text fragments dealing with our interpersonal relationships, m.a.d.- about you explores distorted views of the body and its interactions, merging the real and the virtual as well as multiple temporalities into a distorted and intoxicating universe made of haunting voices, techno music, physical contact and organic shapes. Playing with the liveness, fragility and unpredictability of the digital video composition, m.a.d. - about you is in no way a mere video streaming of a live performance, but it is an attempt to provide the audience in front of the screen with completely different perspectives as well as visual, emotional, intellectual and sensorial accesses to experiencing movement, dance, bodies, their physicality and the meaning of „love“. The spectators are invited to immerse themselves into a dystopian and intimate world where desire, longing, loneliness, obsession, love, rage and cravings for the other and the self merge into a shattered dream - or into a hopeful nightmare. Press: „La palme de l’exploitation du format vidéo revient à Valerie Reding, qui a retravaillé sa dernière pièce m.a.d. pour en faire une performance exclusive en live stream, avec la complicité de Nora Smith et Mahalia Giotto. L’artiste danse en direct, tout en étant filmée sous différents angles par un jeu de trois caméras. Sur l’écran s’impriment en superposition d’autres images pré-enregistrées et remixées. Différentes temporalités se juxtaposent ainsi, brouillant les repères. La silhouette se fond progressivement dans ce collage de plus en plus abstrait et psychédélique, tandis que résonnent les échos lancinants de la voix d’Ivy Monteiro. Les images sont somptueuses et l’effet envoûtant.“ Marie-Laure Rolland, La Glaneuse (LU)