Furs!

FURS! is a proposal for the Parisian Musée de la chasse et de la nature upon invitation from curator Mehdi Brit.

FURS! blends fantasy and reality, myth and literature. It’s a proposal in which the dancing body takes us on a journey, drawing from the context of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and its many stories.

« On Wednesday, April 30, when the clock strikes 7:30 p.m., we enter the Hôtel de Mongelas. Even though it has been transformed into a museum, we are indeed stepping into a private mansion; we are guests of unknown hosts.
We pass through the entrance hall, the antechamber, climb the stairs, and arrive in the boar room, before finally stopping in the deer and wolf room.
There we are, comfortably settled into a sofa or leaning nonchalantly on a windowsill. We spend a pleasant moment taking in the rich decor of the place.
Our gaze wanders from a fragile deer—symbol of a man pursued by his desires—to a wolf emerging from the woods to hunt, only to be hunted in turn by villagers.

And suddenly, between the two taxidermied beasts, a third figure appears: a woman.
Huntress or prey? Mistress of the house or piece of decor? What role for this motionless heroine?

We watch her back slowly reveal itself. We think of Wanda von Dunajew, or rather Angelika Aurora Rumelin, the wife of the famous Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs. For more than ten years, she played not the role of the cruel dominatrix for her husband, but a multitude of roles. »

« Only the duration of the undressing turns the audience into voyeurs, » wrote Roland Barthes.

Today, we are her observers; with her back to the audience, her languor unveils a world of imagination.

Images by Sophie Lloyd