Reign of Creativity : Antonia Baehr and her Abecedarium Bestiarium

La Chapelle struck a high note in its opening show. Within the framework of the Queer Performance Camp 2018, the Berlin-based artist Antonia Baehr presented her Abecedarium Bestiarium, which she qualifies as « portraits of affinities in animal metaphors ». An out-of-the-ballpark performance, way past any simple choreography, theater play, improvisation ; everything is set with a surgical precision, a journey between objects/fetiches associated with mythical extinct beasts, but still infusing with a haunting presence the lands which saw them live. 

The audience roam from station to station around the initials of these quasi-legendary beasts… D for Dodo. Y for the Yangtze River Dolphin, T for the Tasmanian Tiger, and much more… through Antonia Baehr, giving breath to her text with a deadpan precision, in three languages (German, French and English). But always with an economy of means, to induce the deepest envy from opulent theatrical companies, within a journey where intelligence and a profound inspiration prime, combining poetry and erudition, sensibility and humour, ancient times nostalgia to postmodernism. 

How many shows, performances, both in the theater and in dance, should be inspired by such maestria ! With her economical approach, Antonia Baehr demonstrates remarkably on where lays the primordial (and should prime, first and foremost), in any true avant-garde : in an all-out creativity, far from any limitations. Where intelligence and a deep mastery of the treated subject should add depth to the artistic process, reigning over a mixing up of all the established rules of the stage. 

Only one negative note : the size of the audience. I believe that such a performance should have been limited to a fraction of the number of spectators, to highten the intimacy factor. I know, it’s not economically sound, but this magnificent performance would have been magnified…

Antonia Baehr, I will, from now on, follow your career with diligence and devotion ! What a marvelous artist !