Zimmermann & de Perrot

Awarded

Zimmermann & de Perrot: Martin Zimmermann / Dimitri de Perrot

'Chouf Ouchouf', stage design

Scenography

An Ode to Zimi & Dimi
There are two rea­sons why writ­ing about the works of Mar­tin Zim­mer­mann and Dim­itri de Per­rot is not an easy task. Firstly, be­cause they were not re­ally dis­cussed dur­ing the jury's eval­u­a­tion of the works sub­mit­ted for the Fed­eral Prize for De­sign. Sec­ondly, be­cause it is dif­fi­cult to take an ob­jec­tive view of the opus of Zim­mer­mann & de Per­rot, if one has seen live per­for­mances of their dance the­atre pieces.

These two rea­sons share the same basis: both artists are ex­cep­tional tal­ents.

Dur­ing the eval­u­a­tion process, not a sin­gle mem­ber of the jury had to be con­vinced that they de­served the prize. Nor was it a case of just 'wav­ing them through' with a bored ges­ture. Rather, the jury took great joy in award­ing the prize once more for a fur­ther pro­ject by Zim­mer­mann & de Per­rot. For years, the mu­si­cian Dim­itri de Per­rot and the dancer and ac­ro­bat Mar­tin Zim­mer­mann have cre­ated pieces that have the au­di­ence sit in their seats as­ton­ished, laugh­ing, deeply im­pressed, stunned and ad­mir­ing and leav­ing the the­atre happy and in­spired. The light­ness with which ac­ro­bat­ics, dance, music and stage de­sign are united and con­stantly rein­vented and re­com­bined is unique in the world of the­atre.

'Chouf Ou­chouf' is the third piece to re­ceive a prize from the Fed­eral Of­fice of Cul­ture. After 'Gaff Aff' and 'Öper Öpis', it is the third pro­gramme with which Zim­mer­mann & de Per­rot go on a world tour. It was orig­i­nally de­vel­oped, be­cause the 'Groupe ac­ro­ba­tique de Tanger' asked them to write a piece for them. 

The scenog­ra­phy con­sists of five tall and colour­ful tow­ers. These tow­ers form a city which dur­ing the play the twelve ac­ro­bats live in, oc­cupy, climb up on, play on, and fall down from. Due to the mo­bil­ity of the tow­ers, this city also de­vel­ops its own sep­a­rate ex­is­tence which in turn im­pacts on the artists and their free­dom of move­ment, open­ing up new per­spec­tives and chang­ing old ones. This game al­lows the per­form­ers to con­stantly show a new face to the spec­ta­tors and to elicit all sorts of emo­tions in them. With 'Chouf Ou­chouf', Zim­mer­mann & de Per­rot take us on an in­ten­sive, beau­ti­ful and mys­te­ri­ous jour­ney, to an un­fa­mil­iar world in which from time to time we recog­nise our­selves and our en­vi­ron­ment.
Anna Niederhäuser

Dimitri de Perrot
Born in
1976
Education
Director, composer, musician, stage designer
Group name
Zimmermann & de Perrot

Martin Zimmermann
Born in
1970
Education
Director, choreographer, clown, stage designer
Group name
Zimmermann & de Perrot