Untitled (Steel Bar) – The Film

In June 2025, Aurélien Dougé created Untitled (Steel Bar) for Artocène – the Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc Biennale of Contemporary Art, dedicated to the theme of the “augmented body” and curated by Laurène Maréchal. Moving away from the technological imaginaries often associated with this notion, the performance explores the relationship between the body and matter through an elementary object: a four-metre-long steel bar.

On a square platform, Aurélien Dougé continuously turns on his axis while holding the bar and sliding it along the floor. The object acts both as a physical constraint and as an extension of the body, altering points of support, forces and lines of tension.

The regularity of the rotation contrasts with the extreme slowness of the choreography. The positions of the arms, inclinations and twists gradually evolve, making the transitions almost imperceptible. Rudy Decelière’s sound composition accompanies this continuous movement and contributes to a sensation of suspended time.

Created from the performance in collaboration with Adrianne Louet and Claude Quéré (WIPART), the video combines three points of view filmed simultaneously: frontal, overhead and close-up. The editing moves successively from one to the other, shifting the viewer’s gaze between the overall geometry of the setup, the body, the bar and their shadows.

The film thus preserves the continuity and slowness of the performance while revealing details and variations that are difficult to perceive from a single viewpoint.