Pleasure and apocalypse: The relation of pleasure and horror in images of a catastrophic history

This article discusses the piece Salves, a performance choreographed by Maguy Marin in collaboration with Denis Mariotte that premiered at the Biennale de la Danse de Lyon in 2010. With regard to the choreographer's statement that Salves - an attempt to stage a catastrophic past and apocalyptic visions - would be an invitation for resistance, the text questions whether the performance raises any urge for resistance. With reference to Jacques Rancière's thoughts in The Future of the Image, the review scrutinizes efforts of representing catastrophic events with theatrical means and reflects on the pleasurable experience of watching Marin's visual poetry, which stands in vast contradiction to the proclaimed horror of the performance.