Théo Mercier & Steven Michel

In Affordable solution for better living, visual artist Théo Mercier and choreographer Steven Michel break the taboos of a society saddled with healthy leaving, placing a Kallax – a most peculiar totem – in the middle of a spotless space. The flagship shelf unit by the giant company Ikea – less famous than the Billy but more sizable and refined – epitomizes “beauty for all”. By transposing a commercial system to a choreographic piece, Affordable solution for a better living aims to interrogate the commodified body, the prescribed lifestyle and the illusion of freedom touted by the major industrial powers. How does the corporate world stage the consumer’s body? Is the household the only insubmissive space or in fact na umpteenth incarnation staged by a major brand? In three acts, Affordable solution for a better living debunks the model and unfurls the convictions and doubts of a nearly perfect and polished man. A centaur, half man and half furniture, absurdly builds his own customized interior, unique and yet like all the others. In crescendo mode, mand and space merge beautifully, the smooth, harmonious and chilling world cracks and bends, exposing its dark side as well as its humanity. Aren’t people likely to self-destruct from within as they strive excessivley to tend to their interior?


STEVEN MICHEL studied mimicry, percussion and dance before moving to Brussels in 2006, to attend the P.A.R.T.S. dance school run by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. He performed for choreographers and directors such as David Zambrano, Falk Richter, Lukas Dhont, Daniel Linehan and Maud Le Pladec, and worked with visual artists such as Théo Mercier and Sarah & Charles. He collaborates with Belgian choreographer Jan Martens since 2012, and he created the solo piece They Might Be Giants in 2016. His artistic approach establishes connections between science and fiction, miniature and monumental, harmony and chaos, watching and hearing, and analogue and digital.

THÉO MERCIER is a visual artist and director living between France and Mexico. His thinking lies somewhere between anthropology, ethnography, geopolitics and tourism. While in residence at Villa Medici in Rome, he wrote his first piece Du futur faisons table rase [Let’s Turn the Future into a Clean Slate], which was presented at Nanterre-Amandiers in 2014. That same year, Théo Mercier was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Award. He has presented his work at Palais de Tokyo, Moscow Biennale, Pompidou Centre, Hamburger Bahnhof and The Museum of Contemporary Art of Val-du-Marne. He presented La Fille du collectionneur [The Collector’s Daughter] at Nanterre-Amandiers in 2017. Affordable Solution for Better Living, created with Steven Michel, in 2018, was also presented at Nanterre-Amandiers and won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale 2019.