Summary
- Aëla Labbé and Melentini present VÉGÉTALE at Newman Cinema in Athens on November 10, 2026.
- The work transforms Labbé’s photographic research and self-portraits into a live performance with dance and music.
- It opens the ETEROTOPIA festival, which runs until December 22.
- Tickets are available through More.com.
Event Details
Photographer and choreographer Aëla Labbé brings her self-portraits into a live performance with Melentini, opening the ETEROTOPIA festival in Athens on November 10.
VÉGÉTALE brings photography, contemporary dance, music and performance together. The French-led production comes to Newman Cinema, where photographic images become the starting point for an action taking place directly in front of its audience.
The organisers have shared three videos of the work:
From self-portraiture to live movement
In Aëla Labbé’s photographic practice, her own body often becomes part of the frame. VÉGÉTALE takes this relationship further: her self-portraits and photographs become a starting point for gestures, movement and onstage presence. Audiences encounter not only the photographic result but a new interpretation of the process that produced it.
The artistic exploration centres on plants, nature, roots and the body’s relationship with its surroundings. In Cie LUCANE’s official presentation of the work, Labbé describes self-portraiture as the point of departure for choreographic action, linking photography with embodied experience.
Melentini performs the music and vocals live
Melentini joins Labbé onstage as both musician and performer. Vocals, song, acoustic and electronic sounds form a musical environment in dialogue with Labbé’s movements. The two artists have known and worked with each other for roughly twenty years, and VÉGÉTALE brings that collaboration into a shared stage work.
Richard Orpheas König is responsible for sound design, while Céline Gobillard handles the photography screening. Stéphane Imbert is credited with scenography and artistic oversight for the Athens presentation in the production’s press material.
ETEROTOPIA turns a cinema into a performance space
The performance opens the ETEROTOPIA festival, running from November 10 to December 22, 2026, at Newman Cinema. Its programme brings together cinema, video art, live visuals, music, dance and performance, using the screening room as a space for live artistic work.
Photography has met other art forms in different settings before, including the “Forsaken Places” exhibition, which combined photographic work, video art and performance. In VÉGÉTALE, however, the photographic research itself becomes part of the choreography.
When and where to see VÉGÉTALE
Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at 9:00 pm, at Newman Cinema, 117 Sevastoupoleos Street, Athens, near Panormou metro station. Online tickets are available through More.com.
Aëla Labbé is credited with concept, choreography, photography and performance, with Melentini providing live music. The production is by Association La Kerhérou / Cie LUCANE, with Danse À Tous Les Étages, Le Triangle Cité de la Danse Rennes and ETEROTOPIA as co-producers. The festival takes place under the auspices and with the support of Greece’s Ministry of Culture.
What we think
For photographers, the most compelling part of VÉGÉTALE is the idea that a self-portrait need not end when the shutter closes. Labbé takes images she has already made and reworks them through her body in front of an audience. That makes the photographic process part of the performance, rather than treating photographs as mere stage decoration.
Melentini’s presence matters too: the music is performed live, sharing the space with choreography and projected images. For photographers and filmmakers, this is an interesting example of how a visual idea can find a different rhythm and meaning when its medium changes.
