Musical Performance
Production Company KATLZ RIGA
Perdre Le Nord
The performance is conceived as a mutual improvisation between two artists, based on a structure of several French idioms. These expressions are unrelated and meaningful only to the performers' inner workings. To the uninitiated, they sound like a kind of "trick": the literal meaning of the words is deceptive, concealing a different, truer meaning.
Artist Maxim Isaev plays the role of the "uninitiated" in the performance, assembling a visual interpretation of the verbal sequence. Each idiom corresponds to a musical composition by Alexei Aigui—an emotional decoding of the verbal riddle. Thus, the dialogue between musician and artist becomes an attempt to discern the true essence behind external contours.
The musical performance will be presented for the first time in the Baltic countries and Finland in late November - early December 2025.
The first version of Perdre Le Nord was performed in July of this year at the Delirium club in Avignon, France. Both members live in France.
Alexei Aigui is a musician and composer who has written music for over 100 films and television series, and is the founder of the ensemble "4'33", whose name alludes to the ideas of John Cage. He has always worked as an independent musician, outside of state institutions. Since the late 1990s, he has lived and worked in France; since 2022, his name has no longer been credited for music performances in Russia. In France, he writes film scores and is a regular participant at the Cannes Film Festival.
Maxim Isaev is an artist and performer, one of the participants in the art squat at 10 Pushkinskaya Street in St. Petersburg in the 1980s. In 1989, together with colleagues from the avant-garde theater, he founded the AKHE project, which focused on film, painting, and performance. In the 1990s, together with Pavel Semchenko, Isaev developed AKHE into an independent "engineering theater" with Numerous European tours and international projects have been undertaken. The artists participated in Slava Polunin's productions and worked extensively in Germany. Since 2022, all AKHE members have been living in various European countries; the theater has officially partnered with the French production company IVA, creating performances in residence and at festivals in France and Germany.
Maxim Isaev and Alexei Aigui first met in France in the summer of 2025 to create the performance "Perdre Le Nord."
Performance "PERDRE LE NORD" – Loss Of Bearings
Musician Alexei Aigui and artist Maxim Isaev
A collaborative improvisation based on a shared understanding of the similarities between the two arts – music and visual design. One sets the musical tone, the other responds with images and movements; we never know which of the two is leading in this collaborative performance. The creative line never freezes; it is like a compass in unknown territory.
The performance is based on the principle of "unpacking," where the two artists search for new landmarks to replace those lost in the shifting locations of life, creativity, and work. Nothing is reliable, only cardboard and moving boxes, where objects from someone else's life are discovered, which can be reimagined as one's own.
Living in France, both artists explore a new cultural and linguistic landscape. The performance is based on French idioms – phrases whose meaning is unfamiliar yet surprisingly universal. Through music and playing with objects, they explore and reinterpret these expressions, blending them with the idioms of the languages of the places where they perform. An exploration of language, culture, and the fragile maps we draw for ourselves in unfamiliar worlds.
