FLUID and T
Sunday, 10 May 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Ritual performance by Sylvain Méret
Work in Progress
The material presented for the Somahut festival is an improvised performance revisiting and compiling elements of the project Fluid i T. This showing is a work in progress, an attempt to share a somatic, ritualistic experience with an audience.
“I have always felt the aquatic aspect of my existence. I am fluidity, my body resonates, I am in constant and profound resonance…” Kim de L’Horizon, “Blutbuch”, 2023.
Fluid i T is the result of several years of introspection and research into the question of identity, how it lands in the body’s physiology, and how it creates traumas. This autobiographical project draws on the somatic, emotional, psychological, and spiritual experiences of a person with a dual identity. Since childhood, Sylvain has been animated by two voices, two entities: the girl and the man. Largely experienced as an inner conflict, the writing process acted as a form of reconciliation and has been the primary motor to share this quest through a performance.
At the heart of the narrative, the concept of Cultural Anatomy (Conrad) or Somatheque (Preciado) is central to move beyond the cultural matrix dictating our unconscious behaviours. Our lived experiences are intrinsically woven into the fabric of the social and political body; in this sense, the intimate sense of self becomes a reflection of culture and transcends the mere individual experience. Tissue fluidity, intuition, trance, somatic awareness, and the acceptance of extraordinary experiences are the paths taken to break free from this setup. The identity conflict found a form of resolution through contact with the native cultures of the Indigenous peoples of North America and their chosen terminology, Two-Spirit. Far from being a matter of cultural appropriation, the issue is rather spiritual and also historical. The colonial imprint left on Indigenous populations has created shame, guilt, the disintegration of vitality, sexuality, and a harmonious relationship with the Earth’s environment. This perspective from another culture was, for the author, the trigger for a process of acceptance and a return to a unity that is complex, sometimes disarming, but rich. Furthermore, the act of ritual performance attempts to subvert theatrical mechanisms to explore a form of radical presence and its action on the present moment.
This performance blends text, voice, movement, and music to generate a vibratory, somatic, and memorial experience for the audience. The spoken and recorded texts, samples, and effects pedals that transform the voice into sonic material contribute to a sensory collage that manipulates memory to create expressive material.
