Gaëlle Bourges’s work reflects a strong inclination toward references to art history, and a critical relationship with the history of representation. Her pieces include, among others, the triptych Vider Vénus (2009–2013) (a juxtaposition of female nudes in Western painting with those of erotic theatres); A mon seul désir (2014), on the figure of virginity in the tapestry “The Lady and the Unicorn” (Festival d’Avignon 2015); Lascaux (2015), followed by Revoir Lascaux (2016) (its all-audiences version), on the discovery of the eponymous cave; Conjurer la peur (2017), based on the fresco of the “Good and Bad Government” painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena; Le bain (2018), an all-audiences piece drawn from the paintings “Diana at her Bath” and “Susanna and the Elders”; Incidence 1327 (2017), on Petrarch’s encounter with Laura, a performance co-created with visual artist Gwendoline Robin (“Sujet à Vif”, Festival d’Avignon 2018); Confluence n°… (2019), on the Galilean moons, again with Gwendoline Robin; Ce que tu vois (2018), based on the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers; OVTR (ON VA TOUT RENDRE) (2020) (Festival d’Automne, Paris, 2021), on the looting of the Acropolis by a British ambassador in Athens in the early 19th century; (La bande à) LAURA (2021), an all-audiences piece on the erasure of women artists and models from art history (Festival d’Automne, Paris, 2021); LOULOU (la petite pelisse) (2022), based on a fur nude by the Flemish painter Rubens, as part of the Fabrique des écritures programme initiated by Les Fêtes Galantes / Béatrice Massin; AUSTERLITZ (2023), a puzzle built from the memories of the show’s seven performers, echoing the eponymous novel by W.G. Sebald; Juste Camille (2024), based on a 15th-century Italian wedding chest, created with the student puppeteers of the 13th cohort of ESNAM; and La petite soldate, an all-audiences piece based on Stravinsky and Ramuz’s Histoire du Soldat, featuring two life-size dolls. She also creates performances for museums: Une salle où se rafraîchir (Musée de Cluny); La salle des fêtes, an installation/performance co-created with Abigail Fowler and Stéphane Monteiro for the festival “L’envers du décor” at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris; and Amies secrètes, for the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, as part of the exhibition “Surréalisme. Le Grand Jeu.”
Gaëlle Bourges also holds a degree from the University of Paris 8 – specialising in dance; a qualification in “Somatic Education through Movement” from the Body-Mind Centering School; and occasionally contributes to theoretical discussions on dance. She has also trained in music, commedia dell’arte, clown, and dramatic arts. She founded and ran a musical theatre company for and with children for several years (the Théâtre du Snark); worked as a stage manager at the BNF; and as a striptease performer in an erotic theatre.
Gaëlle Bourges is an associate artist at the TPM (Centre Dramatique National de Montreuil – directed by Pauline Bayle) from 2026 to 2028. She was a companion artist at the MCA (Maison de Culture d’Amiens) from January 2019 to June 2024; associate artist at the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris) from September 2018 to June 2023; associate artist at L’échangeur – CDCN Hauts-de-France, Château-Thierry, from 2019 to 2021, having previously been a long-term artist in residence from January 2016 to January 2019; companion artist at Le Manège, national stage of Reims, for the 2018–19 season; associate artist at the Comédie de Valence – CDN Drôme-Ardèche, directed by Richard Brunel, from 2017 to 2019; associate artist at Danse à tous les étages, a territorial dance venue in Brittany, within the Résodanse project (“au bout du monde!”) for the 2017–18 season; associate artist at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours (CCNT) – directed by Thomas Lebrun, from September 2016 to December 2018; and associate artist at the Ménagerie de verre, Paris, for the 2016–17 season.
