GIULIANA GEMELLI E FRANCESCO LANZA (A
CURA DI)
they be able to produce artistic emotions for audience? My thesis project is part of the continuity of the reflections that I have during my studies in art school and about the concrete experiences that I have had. From decor-horse to horse-actor through horse-object, I approached the performing arts as a researcher for whom everything is horse. Accompanied by Listan and Luzio, my two horses-compagnions, her association games allowed me to think of different ways of working with them. We live together. Through epistemological work I propose new status for my horses by naming them: partners. Together, we do not practice what is traditionally called Haute École, but as Donna Haraway says, “We train each other to perform acts of communication that we barely master. We are constitutively a kind of company [...] reciprocal partners in our specific differences”. Conferring partner status on animals may suggest that we are working together as a team. To enable them to do their jobs, I invent new methodologies and objects that horses can use to produce new aesthetic forms that make sense to them. From submissive animals they become acting animals. This research invents a space of representation in which horses can acquire more and more control over their capacity to act. To give an example, during an experiment that I led the horse who learned to use a switch, decides to turn on or off light or sound installations that he likes or disturbs him44. This new status allows the horse to participate actively, which I consider to be a co-writing of the work in real time. The forms he proposes open the way for the creation of a new form of relationship and art. 44 Hippo-Lab #1, Performative Fraction about switch scene, video online at http://www.charlenedray.com/experimentations-21.html 250
