Foundation Journal : The Final Movement of Mise en abyme

On September 20, more than 2,000 people came through the Château’s doors for European Heritage Days. The day also marked the final hours of Mise en abyme, the exhibition by Erin LeAnn Mitchell and Kaitlyn Tucek, which welcomed nearly 18,500 visitors over the course of the summer.

At dusk, the closing event brought together the artists and those who had accompanied the exhibition. Voice, movement, and dance filled the Château’s spaces, giving the works one final movement before their departure.

Going Home: Voice, Body, and Refuge

On one of the garden fountains, Erin LeAnn Mitchell took her place within a textile work designed as a skirt. Beside her, Roda Yawli, a member of the Foundation’s team, performed Going Home, the African American spiritual whose rendition by Alice Coltrane had already accompanied the raising of There Is a Safe Place to Land atop the Château on July 4.

The song resonates with questions central to the artist’s work: migration, belonging, refuge, and the memory of the African diaspora. Facing the Mediterranean, the encounter between Erin LeAnn Mitchell and Roda Yawli created a new relationship between the work, the music, and the site. Someone who contributes to the life of the Château each day thus became part of the artistic gesture and helped carry it forward.

Undulation: Transmitting a Work in Motion

The evening continued with a new version of Undulation, born from a poetic text and artistic direction by Kaitlyn Tucek. First created in May 2026, the piece was conceived as an open form, intended to evolve across places, bodies, and time. The original composition Las Canarias by Arminda Klier, created in dialogue with the rhythm of the text, accompanies its transformations.

For its presentation at La Napoule, Kaitlyn Tucek made subtle changes to the text, allowing new perceptions of place, memory, and time to enter the work. Under the direction of Ella Birkner, the performers worked from this version and video archives of the original choreography. Their movements, experiences, and relationship with the Château’s architecture gave rise to a new variation of Undulation.

Carried successively by different voices and bodies, the work retains traces of its previous forms while opening new possibilities.

After the Exhibition

These performances extended the questions at the heart of Mise en abyme. Created in dialogue with the Château, the works continued to transform through encounters with the artists, performers, teams, and public.

A few weeks later, other artists now inhabit the studios at La Napoule. New lines of inquiry are beginning, guided by the same attention to emerging forms, unfolding conversations, and the time needed to let them grow.

Undulation Credits

Artistic direction, concept, and text: Kaitlyn Tucek
Original choreographic collaboration, May 2026: Breegan Kearney, Gillian Beauchamp, Deeta Jain, and Jalaina Felker
Direction, September 2026: Ella Birkner
Performance and reinterpretation: Ella Birkner, Marie Raynaud, Caroline Marchand Gauze, and Karine Gérard
Musical composition: Las Canarias, by Arminda Klier (Arminda K)