Actress, dancer, poet, painter… Academy Award® winning actress Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) has more than one trick up her sleeve. In September 2009, her various talents will converge in New York City and Brooklyn in “In-I & Jubilations,” a month-long series of artistic events that include dance performances (Akram Khan’s “In-I” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), a film retrospective (also at BAM), book signings (of her art book Portraits In-Eyes), a new film release (Paris by Cédric Klapisch), a documentary about Juliette Binoche produced by her sister Marion Stalens (Juliette Binoche: Sketches for a Portrait at the French Institute Alliance Française) and an exhibition of her portraits and poetry at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. This exhibit, “In-Eyes,” will include 58 ink washes on paper as well as poems, all created and selected by Juliette Binoche. It will be her first-ever art show on American soil and will offer a unique opportunity to discover a new facet of this multi-talented French artist.

Ever since receiving a commission from the Cahiers du Cinéma for a series of portraits in July 2007, Ms. Binoche has not stopped painting during her movie shoots. But she had been painting off set for far longer, and first showed her work publicly in the 1990s (in 1991 her art work was featured in the movie The Lovers on the Bridge, in which she starred as a painter, and in 1993 she exhibited a series of work done in collaboration with French artist Christian Fenouillat). Favoring portraits, Ms. Binoche has not only depicted many of the famous directors with whom she has worked but also characters she has played, in what is a rather unique spin on the self-portrait tradition. “In-Eyes” will feature 29 triptychs, each including one of these “in character” self-portraits, a portrait of the related movie’s director, and a poem addressed to the director. These works offer a personal view, full of emotion, of the key encounters that have influenced Juliette Binoche’s movie career.

Speaking of her art, Juliette Binoche explains, “The heat and emotion to be generated, like the physical stamina to be supplied, are part of an actor’s life. Whatever was left over, whatever surged forth despite myself, and whatever I had hoped for, I then put down on paper. None of it is definitive; it’s just a record—a fleeting and subjective perception—of one moment in life. Technique simply came with the desire to paint, without preconceptions.”

source:  artdaily.org

HONG KONG (AP) — Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche says touring for her dance collaboration with Britain choreographer Akram Khan was so exhausting she’s unlikely to take part in a similar project again.

Binoche told a press conference Tuesday that working on the modern dance performance “In-I” was a great learning experience but physically taxing, joking that she thought about giving up “because it’s so difficult” but couldn’t because she signed a contract.

“I learned to bend. I learned to shut my mouth because as an actress I was commenting a lot about what I was feeling,” said Binoche, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for the 1996 romance “The English Patient.”

But asked if she would sign up for another dance project, the 44-year-old actress shook her head quickly and said, “I don’t think so.”

“I’m really enjoying it,” Binoche said, but adding, “I’m suffering.”

Khan, who has choreographed for Australian pop star Kylie Minogue and French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, said it was a refreshing experience working with Binoche because she had no formal dance training, likening her to a “blank canvass.”

“When I’m working with, for example, a ballet dancer, then you start from a reference of ballet. You start with a vocabulary and sometimes the knowledge becomes a curse,” Khan said.

“In-I,” which had its world premiere at the National Theatre in London on Sept. 18, is making its Asian debut in Hong Kong Wednesday as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival before moving on to Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai.

source: The Associated Press

French actress Juliette Binoche will come to Shanghai to perform on the stage of the Shanghai Oriental Art Center on March 27 and 28.

The performance, entitled “In-I,” will combine various disciplines such as mime, comedy, dance, song and the spoken word.

The performance premiered in London last year, but this is the first time the 44-year-old actress has appeared on stage in Shanghai.

“It’s classical dance combined with modern dance, film and opera,” says Binoche. “‘In-I’ asks, what is love? Love should be an adventure in our hearts.”

The performance is co-directed by Binoche and Akram Khan, a leading London-based dancer and choreographer. Sculptor Anish Kapoor will design the sets.

Binoche first attracted attention when she appeared alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1988) at the age of 23.

She is known worldwide for her roles in films such as “Three Colors: Blue” (1993), “Chocolate” (2000) and “Hidden” (2005).

Binoche was the second French actress to win an Oscar, being honored by the Academy as Best Supporting Actress in 1997 for her role in “The English Patient.”

Binoche has also published a book of poetry, featuring her own illustrations, and exhibited her paintings in Paris.

source: english.eastday.com

The Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche, is to appear in a contemporary dance performance at the Emirates Palace hotel next month.

Binoche will appear with Akram Khan, an internationally acclaimed contemporary dancer and choreographer.

The Turner prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor has joined the team as set designer and the composer Philip Sheppard has created an original score for the piece.

Its creators claim it will take the audience on “an emotional journey tracing the themes of longing, love, disappointment, anger and forgiveness between a man and a woman”.

There will be two performances of Two Artists on Stage – One Daring Adventure, which has been brought to the UAE by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, on January 28 and 29. The show had its world premiere in London in September as part of the European Cultural Season.

Binoche said: “With Akram, I felt that we could confront and share new desires, hopes and visions through our respective arts by inventing a common language. I never know what I’m capable of before I do it. I secretly hope that faith will take over.

“Any artistic expression is a means to an opening which doesn’t belong to anyone but links us to each other in a mysterious and necessary way.”

Khan said the project had pushed him “in unexpected directions and has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life”.

Abdulla Salim al Amri, the director of arts and culture at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, said: “We are delighted to be able to welcome to the capital two of the world’s most acclaimed artists, one from the realm of film, the other from the realm of dance.”

He said Binoche, star of The English Patient and Chocolat, was famous for her “brave and sensitive rendition of every character she has portrayed on screen” and added Khan’s “fusion of an Eastern, Asian dance heritage with western contemporary forms resonates with our very own wish to bridge cultures through the arts”.

Tickets will be on sale from Jan 4 at www.timeouttickets.com, or free phone within the UAE 800-4669.