Baptiste Conte
After several years of experience in contemporary theatre and dance, Baptiste Conte began studying at the graduates School for Art and Design in Rouen, France (ESADaR). There, he started to develop his performative practice, and was granted a Master’s degree in Fine Arts (DNSEP). Continuing his installation work and his exploration of the body, Baptiste went to Brussels, where he attended the Graduate Institute for Arts and Choreographies (ISAC) and the Art in Public Space program (AEsP) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (ARBA-ESA).
As a performer and collaborator, he was able to work, among others, on the projects of Lorenzo De Angelis (De la force exercée 2017), Pierre Droulers (Dimanche 2018, Les beaux-jours 2019, Occupations 2021), Sophie Perez & Xavier Boussiron – cie Le zerep (Y ma,nque plus que l’orhestre2019), Doria Garcia (The Sinthome Score 2015), Yves Noël Genod (L’amour 2016), Christophe Haleb – cie La zouze (Hnonym 2014), Laurie Peschier-Pimont (Le travail de l’art 2014).
His artistic approach is distinguished by the relationship between the plastic arts and the choreography: as choreographic curator, he invites artists (dancers, performers, visual artists, etc.) in his creation to develop with them a common writing on the subject of the project.
Through a method of composition and group dynamics, he proposes to experiment with new writings through theoretical approaches and its confrontation through the practice of the body. Studies of contexts, societal and historical spaces give rise to hybrid pieces.
The choreographic writing is approached by the history of the body (that of the dancer-performer and more broadly his inscription in history) and these gestures of “handling” which result from it.
The visual arts practice results in the form of an installation either on the set or in an exhibition space. This gesture of installing an object-sculpture and a video is the subject of a study of the principles of “full-hollow”, concave and convex to offer a plastic and political poetics.
Currently his work is developing as much in France as in Belgium.
After several collective projects of performative pieces and exhibitions, he signed his first piece Tiger Balm in 2017. He began his second Ressac in 2019, as well as Gymnasium.
His choreographic approach was supported and followed as part of the “Special Edition: choreographic author” training course he carried out at the National Center for Dance in 2019.