Camille Claudel was a sculptress. She was also a sister of Paul Claudel and for ten years the companion and artist-partner of Auguste Rodin. She died over 70 years ago. The last 30 years of her life Camille Claudel spent in a mental asylum.

The last photo ever taken of Camille provided an impulse that directly influenced the final shape of the performance. It features Camille together with a friend who visited her in the hospital. I imagined that the visits, which didn’t occur very often during her 30 years in the asylum, may have evoked in her a cascade of memories – memories whose shapes I sensed and clothed in my own sensitivity.

Performed by Kamila Klamut, Ewa Pasikowska
Music: Mariana Sadovska
Directed in collaboration by Mariana Sadovska, Carol Brinkmann Ellis, Vivien Wood, Alexandra Kazazou
Lights: Bartosz Radziszewski
Stage design assistance: Bajka Tworek
Sculptures: Marianna Lisiecka, Magdalena Węgrzyn
Premiered in Polish: 27 February 2014
Premiered in English: 7 February 2015
English translation by Ewa Pasikowska
Translation edited by Anne Dennis
Running time: 50 minutes
The piece includes excerpts from Camille Claudel’s letters in Marie Magneron’s and Magdalena Spytkowska’s translation, Zuzanna Ginczanka’s poems and expert from Kobong’s music.
Special thanks to Jarosław Fret.

Created during an artistic residency at the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław.

More information here.