CARDELLINI | GONZALEZ’s practice begins where things seem already set. A guided tour, a performance, a walk: they take existing situations as their starting point. Through performance, theatricality and installation, they shift familiar elements until they can no longer be taken for granted. Presented in theatres, exhibition venues and public spaces, their work engages audiences from the position they already occupy, never allowing them to remain entirely outside what is taking place.
SALVE production & technique
Valérie Niederoest
valerie(at)salveprod.ch
Rue Docteur César-Roux 13
1005 Lausanne
CARDELLINI | GONZALEZ is a duo formed by artists Igor Cardellini and Tomas Gonzalez. Their practice takes shape through performances, installations, and site-specific or itinerant works. Whether in theatres, exhibition venues or public space, their work turns context into an active component, the audience’s position and presence becoming materials in their own right.
The duo’s approach unfolds through acts of displacement. Their works redistribute roles, subvert established uses, restage conventions, or push familiar situations to the point of estrangement. They often engage audiences from the position they already occupy: that of bodies present, caught in expectations, habits, and pre-existing relations. In doing so, ways of looking and being together cease to seem self-evident.
This research extends into their teaching at La Manufacture – University of Performing Arts, where they explore with the students how dramaturgies emerge through encounters with specific sites, situations and audiences.
In Switzerland, co-producers of their work include Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and Maison Saint-Gervais Geneva, with further support from partners across the country’s linguistic regions. Their projects are presented across Europe and South America in collaboration with institutions and festivals including BUDA, Théâtre de Liège, VIERNULVIER, Ménagerie de verre, Klöntal Triennale, La Bâtie, Les SUBS, Fierce Festival, MAHN, Dublin Theatre Festival, Santarcangelo Festival, Short Theatre, NEXT Arts Festival, FIBA and FIAC-Bahia.
Fellows of Istituto Svizzero’s Roma Calling programme (2022–23), they also took part in the Swiss Selection at the Edinburgh Festival (2021), and in 2024 one of their works was selected for the Swiss Theatre Days.
Following a three-month residency at Tokyo Arts and Space in 2026, they are currently pursuing their research at Kaserne Basel and the Cité internationale des arts in Paris.
IGOR CARDELLINI is an artist and theatre director. With a background in anthropology, sociology and political science, he works across performance, choreography and the visual arts. His practice is rooted in the places where collective life plays out and in the ways they shape bodies, behaviours and power relations.
TOMAS GONZALEZ est metteur en scène, acteur et chercheur. Diplômé en lettres de l’Université de Lausanne, puis en Théâtre de La Manufacture, il travaille sur la copie, l’imitation, le reenactment et sur la manière dont les modèles circulent d’une époque, d’un·e interprète ou d’une représentation à l’autre. Il enseigne à La Manufacture depuis 2017 et y propose, avec Anne Pellois, une histoire sensible du jeu d’acteur·ice.
« Igor Cardellini et Tomas Gonzalez pour leur spectacle « This is a trap »», RTS Vertigo, Anne Laure Gannac, 17.08.26
« Sorties. Théâtre, stand-up et danse : les dix spectacles et festivals à ne pas manquer en ce moment selon ‘Libé’ », Libération, 26.05.2026
« Igor Cardellini & Tomas Gonzalez : Lutte des strass », Mouvement, Thomas Corlin, 16.04.25
« L’univers subversif de FRKS », 360°, Dany Niederhauser, 09.04.25
« Revendiquer sa monstruosité », Le Courrier, Emma Chapatte, 08.04.2025
« Interview avec Igor Cardellini et Tomas Gonzalez », RTS Vertigo, Pierre Philippe Cadert, 27.03.2025
« Jérôme Bel sans Jérôme Bel », Magazine CND #5, Belinda Mathieu, 20.03.24
« Igor Cardellini et Tomas Gonzalez font entrer l’âge d’or dans un centre commercial », Les Inrocks, Jérôme Provençal, 5.10.23
« Critique de « L’Âge d’or » », La Terrasse, Manuel Piolat Soleymat, 28.03.23
« Interroger le rapport au travail », France 3, JT 19/20, 18.03.23
« L’Âge d’or », Radio Nova, Antoine Boj, 24.01.23
« Igor Cardellini et Tomas Gonzalez, « Un spectacle » », RTS Vertigo, Anne Laure Gannac, 05.12.22
« Igor Cardellini & Tomas Gonzalez, Le théâtre doit réactiver le sens commun », MaCulture.fr, Wilson Le Personnic, 17.11.22
« Adaya Henry talks about « The Golden Age » », BBC, Rakeem Omar, 17.10.22
« Swiss Dreams. О фестивальной Швейцарии », St. Petersburg Theatre Journal, Nika Parhomovskaya, 18.09.22
« « L’Âge d’or » di Igor Cardellini e Tomas Gonzalez. Metateatro da supermercato, alla portata di tutti », Krapp’s last post, Giulia D’amico, 01.08.22
« Intervista con Igor Cardellini e Tomas Gonzalez », ATP Diary, Guendalina Piselli, 12.07.22
« Le théâtre transfigure l’espace commercial pour faire réfléchir à la société de consommation », Franceinfo, Jérémie Lanche, 24.05.22
« À Lausanne, le théâtre s’invite au centre commercial », France Culture, Jérémie Lanche, 22.05.22
« « L’Âge d’or », une visite théâtrale au centre commercial », RTS Vertigo, Thierry Sartoretti, 20.04.22
« « L’Âge d’or », l’origine du mall », Libération, Annabelle Martella, 19.04.22
« Igor Cardellini et Tomas Gonzalez », Le Beau bizarre #16, Zineb Soulaimani, 22.09.21
« Cardellini & Gonzalez : « L’Âge d’or » au Festival Bonus », Mouvement, Thomas Corlin, 06.09.21
« Connais ton ennemi. « L’Âge d’or »», IO Gazette, Victor Inisan, 09.07.21
« Un show anthropologique drôle et érudit », Le Courrier, Cécile dalla Torre, 29.08.19
2026, 60 min.
Every day, we find ourselves caught up in scripts we have not always chosen, patterns that define our roles and shape both our behaviour and the ways we relate to one another. Some propel us forward; others keep us in place.
By playing with the conventions of each setting, whether a museum, theatre or public space, TRAPS turns these scripts into material for experimentation. As the piece unfolds, roles are reassigned, situations orchestrated, and the framework itself gradually begins to shift. The performance explores what keeps us locked in inertia, leads us to accept things as they are, or drives us to break with them. In a world of overlapping crises, TRAPS seeks out those tipping points where what seemed predetermined veers off course.
A work created and performed by: CARDELLINI | GONZALEZ
Dramaturgical support: Simon(e) van Saarloos
Assistant: Pauls Rietums
Administration: SALVE production & technique, Valérie Niederoest, Isabelle Campiche
Co-production: Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, far° festival et fabrique des arts vivants Nyon
Residency support: MahN Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel, Kaserne Basel, Le Citron Jaune – Centre National des Arts de la Rue et de l’Espace Public
With support from: Ville de Lausanne, Canton de Vaud, SSA, Fondation Casino Barrière Montreux
Past dates:
19-20.8.26 far° festival Nyon, CH (work in progress)
6.11.25 MahN, CH (work in progress)