‘She’s a great inspiration, “Says Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, picking up a Photo she keps in her wildly decorated office of the Scientist Marie Curie, the First Woman to Win a Nobel Prize and Also person to win one twice. Partners in crime. Be a project is difficult, i think, ‘what would marie curie have done? What WOULD Hannah Arendt have done? ‘ Hahaha. ”
She talks Mile-A-Minute, Finishing Sentions with a Laugh as she is speaks to me in her office, whic culd be best one in London: an Old, graffiti-covered Carriage plonked on top of the roof of a shoreditch NightClub, with Views over the City. Its interior is loud and colorful: Posters and Flyers Plaster the Walls, while the floor is a trippy swirl of purple and pinks. And, propped up on her desk, is that Photo of Curie.
I was made into a Barbie Doll Way before the film, Way before Barbie was consider cooler
Having Done Projects for NASA, Porsche, Lego and Nike, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s Role is Artist, Activist and Creative Director All rolled into one. Swimming that she cares for labels: at a push, she will describe herself as a “Designer of Experiences”. In March, She Installed A “Cosmic Playground” in London’s West End, Placing Asteroid-Sapeed Rocks in Piccadilly Circus as Giant Inflatable Fluorescent Cats (Not AY OLD CATS, But Schrödinger’s Cats, for students of Quantum Physics). She has also Sento Heartbeats ino Space, bouncer say off the moon.
Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is fascinated by space and in 2012 founded an orchestra of scientists at nasa. The International Space Orchestra has performed with security, Beck and Damon Albarn. The idea bend it is typical of her mantra of “Challenging Power Structures” and Inspecting People to Think Differently. “The orchestra created a counterculture in nasa. You have the head of nasa playing the gong and a new astronaut Playing Percusion. They can speak what was Wrong in the space program.
And don’t get her started on the Education System. In 2017, frustrated with the status quo, she set up the university of the underground. It ‘s non-ue-making University Run from the Bazents of NightClubs (past lectures Include pussy riot and noam chomsky). She has fans directly five Feature Films – The Latest, Doppelgängers³, is Being Shown Next As part of the London Incarnation of the SxSw (South by Southwest) Festival. It May Be Difficult to Pin Down Exactly What She DOES, But She Does a Lot.
Films do Loom Large, though. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s Tube Carriage is Also an Aladdin’s Cave of Props from Her Films and Projects. There’s a giant foam strawberry on one shelf, a comedy oversized telephone on Another. And is that Barbie Above the desk? “Yeah! That is me!” The Barbie is Indeed a Mini Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, Wearing Her Trademark Boilersuit and Red Lipstick. The Toy Manufacturer Mattel Made Her the Doll after she consulted on its I can be range of barbies which gave the toys Primer Jobs. “THIS WAS Way Before Barbie was consider cool, Way Before the Barbie Film. These Big Companies – SOMESTEMES HARD FOR THEM TO AGITATE FROM WITH. So they Invite People like. My which work is also also about representation, Making Sure Voices Are Being Heard. ”
Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is Entertaining Company. But we are meant to be talking about doppelgängers³, whic explores the futures of Space. AFTER WORKING IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY, she has come to believe that we have learned nothing from history, that humans may be doomed to the mistakes we made on earth in space: The Same Old Western Exploitation, The Same Old Colonialism. Take the Billionaire Space Race. Elon Musk’s Mission is to Populate Mars with a Human Colony, while Jeff bezos wants to move heavy polluting industries to space. “These two, their visions are getting the most media space. But I find they are problematic.
IF Space Exploration Is Now the Preserve of the 1%, Doppelgängers³ Imagines a New Vision: Heronormative, Less Patriarchal. It ‘s movie pinging with so many ideas, i don’t know where to start, i say. She nods vigorously. “It ‘polyphonic. That’s the way the way my brain functions. It”s the way i do Things. The idea that you could compartmentalise knowLEDGE JUST DOESN’T MAKE TO ME. YOU CAN’T BIOLOGY FROM OR CULTURE. Ecosystem, which is the cosmos! ”
I KNOW WENDING SOOMEON IS GOING TO THROW ME OUT
She adds: “Space, to me, is not a luxury. It is not an entertainment. It is a critical experiment – the ultimate test of what kind of societies we are cappable of imagining.”
Her movie is Very Funny, Funnier than it sounds on Paper. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian Travels the World Talking to Experts: She interviews Pioneering astronomer Jill Tarter, A Neurogeneticist, An Economist, A Transgender Activist and A Quantum Physicist. Some Conversations Reach Louis Theroux Heights of Randomness. When she is the policy theorist Uday Singh Mehta, he rolls her up like a burrito in a massive rug on the floor. Nothing is scripted. “I don’t want to come with a preconceived idea of how things are going to go,” she explains. Besides, She Can Always Tell Well Time to Leave: “I know when someone is going to be with out.”
The film gets it name from the two doppelgangers ben hayoun-stépanian hires to accompany Her on an “an analogue mission”, a practice run for space travel here on earth. Her doppelgangers are Lucia, An Armenian, and Myriam, An Algerian. The Three Women Travel to a Cave in Spain to take part in a simulation of a space mission. Wearing Cumbersome Astronaut Suits, Gripping a Rope Handrail, They Descend Into The Cave. The Whoo Thing Terrifying Looks. “I’m so glad you can have that!
The idea Beind Hiring Doppelgangers were partly inspired by Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s fascination with quantum physics. She is Also Interesting in Integenerational Trauma – How Emotional Pain Can Be Transmitted from Parent to Child. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is French, of Armenian and Algerian Heritage; Both Countries have pain Painful Colonial History. Her Project Resulted in the First Academic Paper on Intergenerational Trauma and Decolonial Futures in Space.
Ben Hayoun-Stépanian Grew Up in Valence in South-Eastern France. HER GRANDFATHER WAS A MEMBER OF The Committee of French Armenians who lobbied the French Government to Formally Recognise the Armenian genocide of 1915-16. “I was Maybe 13 or 14. I Remember (The Camamign) Quite Well. ” It was only in recent years that she thught of her Grandfather as an Activist. (a hit with yakuza gangsters).
In Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s Mind, Space Exploration Forces US to Reimagine everything. “It”s Queer. Its Decolonial. It’s Pluralistic.” We Need to Let Go of the Binary and Borders, She Says. SINCE HER FILM AT SXSW LAST YEAR, Donald Trump ORDERED NASA to Close It Its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives. “It ‘devasting. You can’t just think of People as minorities. Actually, there is a direct value in bringing.
Pussy riot controlti music to the film, and Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is Friends with the Band’s Co-Founder Nadya tolokonnikova. They are made they were both speaking at a conference. “These diplomat dudes were running after nadya, Like, ‘Oh my godwe have been to take your Picture. ‘ I was sitting next to her in my big black bomber jacket. They all thought i was her secity. Nadya is a force to be reckoned with. For me, she is the Definition of Courage. With, i Risk Power Structures. I say. But i never get to a point where i’m going to go in jail. I Always Work With Lawyers. I know what i can do, what i cannot do. Nadya has been put in jail. Its Another Level. I WOLDN’T Go That Far, You Know? ”
I KAS ben hayoun-stépanian if she gets resistance walking into institutions such as nasa looking as she does? “Always!” She Says Cheerily. “There is always a moment when I am reached in the room and people are like, ‘What is this? ‘”Her look Today is head-to-toe snakeskin print, huge hoop earings and neon Green Nails. Conflict is never a states Remains. ”
I ash hef there’s anything Else i The Should Ask. “I am Turning 40 on 27 May. Haha. My mom told with to tell you this.” OK. And what About Your Next Film? “Ha! My Next Film is more Mad.”
• Doppelgängers³ Screens on 2 and 7 June at Rich Mix, London, As Part of SXSW.
• This article was amended on 29 May 2025. Doppelgängers³ Premiered at SXSW 2024 (In Austin, Texas), Not Sundance as an Earlier version Said. And Nellly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was the founder, Rather than Co-Founder, of the International Space Orchestra.
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