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Hiroaki Umeda in "Median", presented at the Biennial of Digital Imaginaries of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. Hiroaki Umeda
He is one of the world's forefront of multimedia choreographers. During the opening weekend of the first edition of "Chroniques, Biennale des imaginaires numériques" in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France, dancer, choreographer and visual artist Hiroaki Umeda presented at the Pavilion black his new creation. Median promises the fusion of the body in space with its own microcosm. A whirlwind of movement and a real storm of black and white images, from computer codes to human cells. Interview on the art of movement and the digital imagination of an extraordinary creator.
RFI : Your new piece is nourished by your fluid and dislocated movements, digital biology, technology and human imagination. What is the story of Median ?
Hiroaki Umeda : It's a dance piece and a visual performance. The concept is about the question: how can I choreograph on different scales? From the microscopic structure of a human cell, I try to combine dance and the human cell in a dance piece.
You are one of the masters in the field of dance and digital arts. In Median , the body seems to turn into a molecule and the molecules mutate into bodies. You dance in living cells created on stage by the play of light. Digital art, does it change the possibilities of movement for a dancer ?
I would say in different ways. What I'm looking for in digital art is not something new, but something we already have inside ourselves. I'm not sure that I can change a movement with the help of digital technologies. On the other hand, thanks to digital technologies, we can know more about the question: what is dance? And that makes the dance different. Digital technologies allow us to have a different perception of the dance.
Since always, human beings dream and cultivate their imagination. How does the digital world change the imagination today ? What does the digital imagination mean to you ?
Personally, I find it very interesting to use digital technologies because it makes visible things that are already available. So, we can better know who we are. Technologies can give us access to certain things. I give you a very simple example: if you have a microscope, you can see things that are infinitely small. So, we have access to things at different scales. This allows us a different perception and other possibilities for creation, but also for the public.
Hiroaki Umeda at the Biennial of Digital Imaginaries of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. Siegfried Forster / RFI
► Chroniques, 1st Biennial of digital imaginaries in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, from November 9 to December 15, 2018.