Swiss artists Flavia Papadaniel and Diane Dormet present the first stage of their project, Doris, an exploration of the very essence of gesture and sound, with the aim of offering the audience a profound experience of awareness: not only of what we observe, but also of how we construct and interpret that gaze.

In the United States in the 1950s, Doris, a housewife, is filmed in her living room during an interview with Gregory Bateson, an interdisciplinary researcher, as part of a study on human interactions. These eighteen seconds of conversation – now lost – will give rise to a wealth of scientific literature. Doris' gestures and behaviour are analysed in minute detail, through the filter of cultural and sexist prejudices typical of the time, whose echoes still resonate today.
Starting from this short and famous sequence, known as “The Cigarette Scene”, Flavia Papadaniel and Diane Dormet have created Doris, a critical reinterpretation of social representations, whether conveyed by science – inevitably shaped by those who produce it – or present in our everyday perception.
Through choreographic research that combines gesture, sound and repetition, the two artists play with roles, rhythms and voices to unmask the mechanisms of power at work. With irony and disenchantment, Doris questions our own perceptions: how do we reduce the complexity of human beings to codified behaviours that we believe we know how to interpret? How can we deconstruct our gaze and become aware of the prejudices that influence our opinions?