The Convent of Pleasure- Episode 1: The Beginning

In the first episode "The Beginning" of the soap opera "The Convent of Pleasure", the artists Marie Vassilieff and Abigail de Paiva Cruz and the mantis Le Mante found "The Convent of Pleasure" in Paris. The hand puppets Facil- Le Gandarme, Adviser- The Donkey, Take-pleasure- Le Philosophe and Court- The Artist try to invade the convent and to set it on fire. The mantis Le Mante is very prominent, yet she keeps wondering if this means that she is famous? The climax of this first episode of this video series is the costume party, in which the narrative does not reach a turning point.

"The Beginning" takes the 1668 comedy "The Convent of Pleasure" by Margaret Cavendish as its starting point. In it, a group of women decide not to marry and form a community without men - the titular convent. Artistic works, as well as anecdotes and real-life stories from the lives of artists Marie Vassilieff (1884-1957), Germaine Richier (1902-1959) and Abigail de Paiva Cruz (1833-1944) appear in "The Beginning". All three artists lived in Paris for a time. A new episode will be set in Buenos Aires in spring 2024.

Performer
Miguel Almeida
Simão Bolivar
Ana Fernandes
Ivo Martins
Leo Marybrasse
Irina Pereira
Bernardo Rodrigues
Thomas Spallek
Joon Yoo

Camera
Ana Mariz
Benjamin Ramirez Peres

Animation/ CGI
Nicolas C.Geissler

Voice
Shannon Booth

Music & Sound Design 
Filip Caranica / Contemporarysound.com
Sound archive recordings courtesy of Freesound

Editing
Ani Schulze

Postproduction
Neuzeit.tv
Nicolas C.Geissler

Title Design
Irina Pereira


A series by Ani Schulze, 2023

Funded by Kunststiftung NRW, Medienwerk NRW, Ministerium NRW