Between crime story and surrealistic dream, this piece is a must see!
Journal du Jura 15.10.2005
With enigmatic presence, a contorting body, and astonishing miming he captivates his audience. In a scenery which could be right out of a Magritte painting, between bowler hat, cloudy sky, egg and birdcage, the young magician and detective fights against a bloody night and scuffles with surreal and enchanted clues... Philipp Boë has created an utterly original world wrapped in a gentle mania which is accompanied by a hypnotizing sound track.
24heures 13.08.05
Poetic Police inquiry or peculiarity à la David Lynch: "Mémoire de la nuit" overflows with playful ideas and combines traditional magic with enchanting atmospheres. The absurd always triumphs and creates the world of Philipp Boë.
Le Courier 13.08.05
Was it magic? Was it dance? Was it a crime story or a love story? Philipp Boë’s "Mémoire de la nuit" is difficult to define. But all the same, this poetic and mysterious physical theatre is a delicacy for the soul. The story is unpredictable but still makes sense. The mysterious images succeed each other and let something wonderfully strange appear: a kind of fantastic moment in which one feels light and happy, almost as if one could fly.
Kulturmagazin 26.03.2006
Philipp Boë is able to gracefully conjure not only this famous icon but an entire Magritte-inspired universe, in all its surreal and melancholy lyricism. (...) Starting with just a window frame and a chest of drawers covered in dustsheets, Boë subtly builds Magritte’s striking, familiar images through his ingenious and seamlessly performed slight of hand; an egg, a glass, even a telephone, appear unremarked in Boë’s hand from out of the ether. However, unlike the ego-maniacal theatrics of David Blaine or even Paul Daniels, Boë’s clever little tricks are truly magical; suggesting not the presence of a remarkable person in an ordinary world, but an entirely ordinary person in a remarkable alternative reality. Through these understated little illusions Boë remains truly faithful to Magritte’s comically surreal paintings, creating a universe at once very mundane and utterly bewildering.
The Arcades Project 24.01.07