Concept and credits

Shirtology is conceived as a direct formal opposition to my previous production Jérôme Bel which was based on theperformers’ nudity. I therefore choose to work on the costume. The T-shirt, an iconic clothing item of the contemporary era, emerges as the piece’s material. What is at stake in the piece is the relationship between the body wearing the T-shirt and what is written or represented on it.

The piece is structured in three distinct parts. The first, based on numbers, is a very long countdown, delaying the start of the show. The second is a text composed of the words printed on the T-shirts, which the dancer-actor performs. This part illustrates the alienation produced by consumerism and capitalism on the individual, who is reduced to a puppet obeying the dictates of advertising. The third part attempts to remove all signs of the commercial or advertising world in an effort to achieve emancipation.

Concept
Jérôme Bel
With
Miguel Pereira (Lisbon version), Frédéric Seguette (Paris version)
Casting
Jérôme Bel, Barbara Van Lindt
Company manager
Anne Holzer
Production
R.B. Jérôme Bel
Premiere
February 22nd, 1997, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (Portugal)

Jérôme Bel Company is subsidized by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France, French Ministry for Culture and Communication, by the Institut Français, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its international tours and by ONDA – Office National de Diffusion Artistique – for its tours in France