EMMANUEL MICHAUD

Emmanuel Michaud, born in 1997 in France, is a transdisciplinary artist based in Zurich. Performer, videographer, stage designer, writer and music producer, he navigates between various practices, coming into different constellations with his different projects. His work is nourished by influences such as mythology, science-fiction, sacred chants and dances, contemporary music, rap, metal, comic books or aikido. Staging abstract and poetic narratives in strange and dreamy worlds, his fictions–closer to reality than they seem at first sight–engage the audience physically, emotionally and intellectually.

​

In 2016, he founded the collective SIBJA with Valentine Michaud (saxophone), whose performance trilogy WAITING FOR AMON was awarded the Nico Kaufmann Price in 2018. Working with dancers and musicians, they played in Theater der Künste, Theater Rigiblick, Johanneskirche, ZHdK Highlights (Zurich), Festival de la Cité (Lausanne) and the 83d Musikwoche in Braunwald. Their short film BOTH was screened at the ELIA Biennial Conference 2020 (hosted in Zurich). The collective is still active and currently working on new creations.

​

More recently, he counded the collective PHON3M with Kara Leva (vocals) and Stefan Kägi (piano); their first creation BLEACHED PATHS will be played in April 2023 in Baby Angel (Zurich) and Humbug (Basel).

​

As a stage designer, Emmanuel Michaud worked with the Cie Operatic and with choreographer Diane Gemsch; as a sound designer, with Kara Leva and Nina Dmitrovic; as a videographer with Marina Mello, Akmi Duo and Tubbes Duo. The pieces born of those collaborations have been shown in ZHdK (Zurich), Bicubic (Romont), Le Reflet (Vevey), Sonohr Festival (Bern) or in the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where he assisted director Luc Birraux.

​

Interested in sharing his experience, he developed a pedagogic aspect of his practice which led him to co-organise the ‘How to Practise Practice’ series of workshops within the Master in Transdisciplinary Studies of ZHdK in 2020-21. With Kara Leva, he created in 2022 the workshop ‘Stimme und Sinne’ for students of the Psychology Department of the ZHAW (Zurich).

​

He first obtained a Bachelor and Master of Arts at the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin (Mulhouse), before finishing his studies within the Master in Transdisciplinary Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts (Zurich) in 2023.