Geneviève Favre Petroff
ELECTRA (2007)
Photography, object, movie
Geneviève Favre Petroff – born in 1978, is a swiss visual and performance artist, composer and singer. She narrates private or fictive stories through her songs, words or quotations. She is especially interested in archetypes, social myths or mythological figures and how we incorporate them into our daily lives. She created different characters, every time evolving in a particular visual and sound atmosphere. Her scores often use prerecorded soundtracks made of her own voice or overlaps. The media she uses are diverse including video, light and computer programming. She collaborates with musicians and electronic engineers to develop the appropriate technical system for each project. Her Performances & Installations, often flavored with irony and humour, are internationally presented and were several times rewarded and supported in Switzerland. ELECTRA is a performance of seventeen minutes presented here in video and photographies. The composition refers to the mythological figure of the same name, to electronic music and to opera. The artist creates a glamourous character inspired by the glamourous stars of the 20’s and by science-fiction as Metropolis by Fritz Lang or Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov. She designed a special costume made of different jewels (ring, bracelet, necklace, crown) anda long, pyramidal satin dress decorated with hundred LED lights, which can react alternately to her words and to my actions. During the performance, these accessories are remote-controlled one by one by an assistant and accompany the songs of the performer. The story she tells is full of associations, such as a clear and awake nightmare. The work evokes the psychological themes of relationships between parents and children and deals with the subjects of death, violence and vengeance. The performance starts in the dark, a LED spot is fixed to the head-set microphone of the artist and lights up her mouth which whispers: Rescue me, reconnect my files… Rescue me, reconstruct my memory. Along with a rhythmical accompaniment consisting of her prerecorded voice, she then calls my ghosts: Mother, why are you haunting my dreams? Her dress, covered diagonally with small LED divided into three groups, flashes from the bottom to the top, following the music. Then, she proceeds to explain my daily.
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