- 1992
- France
Comprising members from a vast array of artistic backgrounds (visual artists, dancers, actors, circus performers and more), the company rapidly earned a reputation for its radical performance pieces, conjuring up a primitive and chaotic artistic universe infused with a post-punk energy and post-industrial spirit.
One of the company’s defining values was its longstanding commitment to organising new events, fostering the emergence of a genuine alternative cultural scene through innovative urban theatre.
Although ODM (Didier Manuel) was the group’s founder and emblematic figurehead, the source of its conceptual and artistic identity, Materia Prima art factory was always a collective endeavour with a libertarian spirit akin to Hakim Bey and inspired by the concept of T.A.Z (Temporary Autonomous Zone).
While the company’s work and approach to their art were always resolutely political, the performers were always at pains to avoid all explicit messages, slogans and ideological proclamations, preferring a form of poetic confrontation with the audience through their striking, often unsettling performances and actions.
The company’s work challenged the taboos, anxieties, fascinations, blind spots and neuroses of western society, examining the predicament of modern individuals caught in the web of their own contradictions.
