Gaëlle Bourges ' work shows a marked inclination for references to art history and a critical approach to the history of representations: among other works, she created the triptych Vider Vénus (a comparison between female nudes in Western painting and those in erotic theaters); A mon seul désir,onthe figure of virginity in the tapestry "La Dame à la licorne" (Festival d'Avignon 2015);Lascaux, then Revoir Lascaux (its version for all audiences) on the discovery of the eponymous cave; Conjuring fear, based on the fresco of "Good and Bad Government" painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the public palace of Siena; The Bath, a play for all audiences on female nudes in European painting; Incidence 1327, about Petrarch's encounter with Laura, a performance co-created with visual artist Gwendoline Robin ("Sujet à Vif," Avignon Festival 2018);Confluence n°... aboutGalileo's moons, again with Gwendoline Robin; What You See, based on the Apocalypse tapestry in Angers; OVTR (ON VA TOUT RENDRE) (Festival d'Automne, Paris, 2021), about the looting of the Acropolis by a British ambassador in Athens in the early 19th century; (La bande à) LAURA, a play for all ages about the disappearance of women artists and models in art history (Festival d'Automne, Paris, 2021); LOULOU (the little fur coat), based on a nude painting by the Flemish painter Rubens, as part of the Fabrique des écritures, initiated by Les Fêtes Galantes / Béatrice Massin; AUSTERLITZ, a puzzle based on the memories of the show's seven performers, echoing the eponymous book by W.G. Sebald; Juste Camille, with puppetry students from ESNAM (Charleville-Mézières), based on the story of the warrior Camille in Virgil's Aeneid; La petite soldate, a play for all ages adapted from "The Soldier's Tale" by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz and Igor Stravinsky, which transposes the context of World WarI to the Algerian War of Independence; Guillaume & Harold, based on the story told by the Bayeux Tapestry—the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy—commissioned by Alban Richard as part of the Collection tout-terrain of the National Choreographic Center of Caen in Normandy.
She also designs performances for museums: Hubert’s plate about the collection of plates painted by Hubert Robert on display at the Musée de Valence ; A room to cool off in the tapestry room of "La Dame à la licorne", at the Musée de Cluny, Paris ; The banquet hall installation/performance with Abigail Fowler and Stéphane Monteiro for the "L'envers du décor" festival, offering a critical history of the frescoes in the Forum room at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris ; Secret Friends on women artists in the exhibition "Surréalisme. Le Grand Jeu" exhibition at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA), Lausanne.
Gaëlle Bourges is also a graduate of the University of Paris 8 - majoring in dance; in "Somatic Education through Movement" - School of Body-Mind Centering ; and occasionally lectures on dance theory. She has also trained in music, commedia dell'arte, clowning and drama. For several years, she founded and ran a musical comedy company for and with children (Théâtre du Snark) ; worked as a stage manager at the BNF and as a stripper in an erotic theater.
Gaëlle Bourges is an associate artist at the TPM (Centre dramatique national de Montreuil – directed by Pauline Bayle) from 2026 to 2028. She was an artist-in-residence at the MCA (Maison de Culture d'Amiens) from January 2019 to June 2024; an associate artist at the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris) from September 2018 to June 2023; associated artist at L'échangeur – CDCN Hauts-de-France, Château-Thierry from 2019 to 2021, after having been a long-term artist in residence from January 2016 to January 2019; associate artist at Le Manège, national theater of Reims, for the 2018-19 season; Associate artist at La Comédie Valence – CDN Drôme-Ardèche, directed by Richard Brunel, from 2017 to 2019; Associate artist at Danse à tous les étages, a regional dance theater in Brittany, in the Résodanse project ("au bout du monde !") for the 2017-18 season; Associate artist at the Centre chorégraphique national de Tours (CCNT) – directed by Thomas Lebrun, from September 2016 to December 2018; Associate artist at La Ménagerie de verre, Paris, for the 2016-17 season.
Gaëlle Bourges was awarded the Prix Chorégraphie by SACD 2024.
