Livia Balazova,
"Camille"

15th Dance Days Chania
International contemporary dance festival
July 21 - August 2

Monday July 28, 2025

"Mikis Theodorakis" Theater

July 28^th | 21:30

Livia Balazova/ Colectivo Priekopnik Vevericka, «Camille» (Slovakia)

In 2018, the art group Honey and Dust created the complementary performance eu.genus, which oscillated between a studio, an open rehearsal, an educational concert, an installation and a performance. It involved a wide range of Slovak and international performers. Lívia MM Balážová remained fascinated by the experience of the creation process and the resulting work. She decided to pay closer attention to the life of the French sculptor Camille Claudel, who was one of the sources of inspiration when composing eu.genus.

Fragments of a woman, fragments of a body, fragments of a work. A constant balancing act between the materialization of a work and its destruction. The quote from Louise Bourgeois: "I do, I undo, I redo," very accurately captures this cyclical nature of creation. It is a process of creation, destruction and remaking, which approximates Claudel's own experience with art.

In her performance, Lívia MM Balážová works with the messages and imprints left by one woman straddled between reality and dream, work commitment and private tragedies, freedom and imprisonment in an institution. What was it like to be a woman artist in the past? What is it like today? How many times do I have to reshape and remold myself for satisfaction and fulfillment to come? And will it ever come? What is the line between work and personal? Is there one at all?

Camille Claudel (1864-1943) worked in the period at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when female artists did not have the conditions to learn and present their work. She lived for a long time in the shadow of the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, who was her mentor and collaborated on several of his works. Her love of art, creation, Rodin, the loss of an unborn child, and the difficult task of establishing herself in the artistic circles of the time led her to a psychological breakdown. Claudel's delicate depictions of the human form resulted in sculptures that were censored by the authorities and the press of the time as too sensual and inappropriate. She destroyed approximately 90 of her sculptures and was haunted by paranoia. For more than half of her life, this talented artist was locked up in an institution for the mentally ill, where she eventually died in solitude. She lived her life in the shadows, and the essence and qualities of her work were discovered, named, and documented only after her death.

The Camille Claudel Museum is located in her hometown of Nogent-sur-Seine, and her other works are in the Rodin Museum and in collections around the world.

Concept and performance: Lívia MM Balážová
Dramaturgical cooperation: Monika Kováčová
Assistant director: Zebastián Méndez Marín
Producer: Rafa Ávalos
Scenography: Juraj Poliak
Music composition: Matej Sloboda
Technical cooperation: Lukáš Kubičina
The main partner of the project and supported by public funds was the Arts Support Fund (Fond na podporu umenia).
Residential partners: Divadlo Štúdio tanca (Dance Studio theater), Akadémia umení (Academy of Arts), Dance Days Chania (IP12 arthouse), Divadlo Pôtoň (Pôtoň Theater), Záhrada - centrum nezávislej kultúry (Garden - Center for Independent Culture).

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