Live Arts production office
Isabelle Jonniaux | IN VIVO 5.12
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Director, performer, playwright, curator, researcher; Isabelle Jonniaux follows a plural course. She likes back roads, varied experiences and changing hats
Director, performer, dramaturg, curator, researcher — Isabelle Jonniaux follows a multifaceted path.
She enjoys detours, varied experiences, and switching roles. After completing university studies in Belgium and Canada, she trained in performing arts in Paris. Since 2003, she has performed and collaborated on a wide range of projects in France and Belgium. In 2005, she co-founded Atelier 210 (Brussels), an alternative, multidisciplinary venue focused on emerging creation and the diversity of stage forms. She served as its artistic director until 2020.
In parallel, she founded her own company, In Vivo 5.12, in 2008 to develop her own artistic work. Since 2016, she has also oriented her practice toward research, notably through the Chimeres program (France), dedicated to hybrid forms of writing, and the L’L / chercher autrement en arts vivants program. In 2023, she launched La Verrière, a new residency space in Brussels whose uniqueness lies in its shared resources model and the artistic support it offers to developing projects.
Isabelle Jonniaux sees live art as a broad field of exploration for questioning the many dimensions of “our humanities.” She strives to shift certainties and open up new perceptual fields. Her practice moves fluidly between forms of writing, seeking porous spaces between dramatic text and other artistic disciplines: movement, installation, roaming performance, photography, and sound writing. She enjoys breaking out of traditional theatrical frames by proposing immersive, participatory, or ambulatory experiences.
In recent years, her work has increasingly embraced urban spaces and site-specific writing, offering a chance to explore the narrative potential of public space and its possible connections with live art.
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Creations by IN VIVO 5.12:
- L’OISEAU BLEU (2009) – An adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck’s fairy tale; the company’s inaugural piece, a participatory performance in a four-sided configuration that broke away from the traditional frontal stage setup.
- LA VIREVOLTE (2013) – An adaptation of Nancy Huston’s novel of the same name; a polyphonic piece for one dancer and three performers, intertwining narrative and choreographic writing.
- J'ACCUSE (2017) – The result of a collaboration with Quebec playwright Annick Lefèbvre; a five-voice manifesto written and adapted specifically for Belgium, exploring the real through a process of territorial contextualization.
- BLUE BIRD (2019) – A sound adaptation of L’Oiseau bleu for young audiences; an experience at the crossroads of live performance and immersive sound installation, combining words, spatialized audio, kinetic machines, and light.
- J’AIME BEAUCOUP ICI (2022) – A stage performance born of urban explorations, designed in situ and in connection with the geography of each city it encounters.
- LES ÉCHAPPÉES URBAINES (2022–2023-2024-2025) – A series of audio-guided, interactive sound walks, with routes and content tailored to each environment and neighborhood visited.
- UBIQUITY (2026–2027) – Co-produced with Arep Cie (France), this immersive and participatory show blends theatrical writing, movement, and virtual reality. UBIQUITY takes the form of a contemporary ceremony — a pop-apocalyptic carnival inviting audiences to literally dance on the ruins of our civilization.