The Gas Heart invites audiences to rediscover Le Cœur à Gaz, Tristan Tzara’s seminal 1921 play and a landmark work of Dada theatre, through the presentation of a rare artist’s book edition from the personal collection of Giovanni Aldobrandini. Published in 1977 by the French publisher Jacques Damase, the volume brings together Tzara’s original text with Sonia Delaunay’s celebrated series of twelve lithographs reproducing her original costume designs. A parody of classical drama, Le Cœur à Gaz combines theatrical convention with Dadaist nonsense and the vivid geometric language of Delaunay’s costumes, creating a work that radically dismantles traditional dramaturgy.
The presentation enters into dialogue with our current exhibition, Minh Lan Tran’s Choreodrome, through a shared exploration of matter, presence, and embodiment. In Tzara’s play, characters such as Mouth, Ear, Eye, Nose, Neck, and Eyebrow, together with Delaunay’s costumes, transform seemingly metaphysical observations into corporeal documents, collapsing distinctions between body, object, and performance. This encounter highlights a multidimensional space in which visual art, theatre, and movement coexist, resonating with the choreographic and bodily dimensions that animate Tran’s practice.
The activation of the play will be in English.