Marienbad Électrique

Marienbad Électrique is a mysterious apparition in a spectator’s box at the Opera. The apparition – either blonde or brunette and clad in either a silver or feathered ensemble – appears and disappears, flickers and fades like a holographic spirit. We are left thinking of blonde Delphine Seyrig in Harry Kümel’s film The Daughters of Darkness or brunette Delphine Seyrig in Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. Marienbad Électrique follows other “apparitions” associated with the Opera: M2062 (Fitzcarraldo) in 2014 and Opéra (QM.15) in 2016. Marienbad Électrique is also the title of a book by Enrique Vila‑Matassur centred on the author’s relations with Dominique Gonzalez‑Foerster, a text on the similarities between their respective working methods. The installation can be seen in the main auditorium of the Palais Garnier before the start of each performance and during the interval up until December 2019.

Since 1990, Dominique Gonzalez‑Foerster, the experimental visual artist based in Paris, has been exploring the sensorial and cognitive relationships between bodies and places and notions such as “room”, “tropicalization”, “exotourism”, “anticipation” and “apparition” in numerous international exhibitions, short films, productions and concerts.

DESIGN : Dominique Gonzalez‑Foerster
SOUND DESIGN : Julien Perez
FILMING, PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION : Adrenaline Studio
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR : Constance Chambers‑Farah
COSTUMES : Atelier LCC / Ateliers costumes de l’Opéra national de Paris
DRESSER : Laure Pequin
HAIR AND MAKEUP : Mélanie Gerbeaux
WIGS : Ateliers costumes de l’Opéra national de Paris
SET PHOTOGRAPHER : Giasco Bertoli  

From June to December 2019