Creation Installation Dance Image Sound Light

Montpellier Danse 2010
From Friday, June 25 to Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
from 5pm to 8pm,
at Chapelle de la Miséricorde, Montpellier

‍

MEMORY

"The ritual of a child - a year and a half to the age of 4-5 - sitting on her grandmother's lap, every evening, at the same time, after dinner and before going to bed in all seasons, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea in Algeria. It always lasts at least an hour, in silence, without words. Watching the same stretch of sea, the same stretch of horizon, in all weathers, between dog and wolf, when night falls, even in the dark. We lived in a cottage overlooking the beach. Doing nothing, just being there, in the warmth of each other's bodies. To look or not to look, to see or not to see, to search or not to search for color changes, to invent or not to invent what disappears or appears. Rhythm, boats, waves, birds, wind, light. Contemplate, perhaps. Expect nothing but the night, the stars. To see the details or not, the totality of the landscape, of nature, of beauty. To be somewhere between boredom and emptiness, well-being and the unknown. Being inside oneself, outside oneself, no longer being oneself, being eyes, skin, snout, ears, being an animal on the lookout, being a pebble, being waves, in suspension, daydreaming, no longer knowing who you are, what you're doing, being there. Between gravity and lightness. What we don't name, what we'll never name because there are no words to describe this suspension of time and nature. I said I lived like a vagabond, on the rocks, the sea, the sand, the sun, carried by the love of Paule Peurière, woman of silence."

‍
ALGERIA

Since I'm not a historian, my approach will be above all that of an artist in search of a living memory, with all her pores open to listen to what is being lived and whispered about this Algerian affair affecting so many human beings on both sides of the Mediterranean basin.
1962 - 2012: 50 years! The right time has finally arrived to speak without too much emotion or feeling. Let thought be exercised and shared with tolerance and intelligence. Born in Algeria in 1952, Nicolas Barillot and I conducted a series of interviews with people directly affected by this independence. I heard nothing but intense, often deeply moving accounts, but also diverse, multiple, complex and, above all, lucid, taking into account the effects of the passage of time. There is now a space, fragile but possible, for these testimonies to be expressed with precision and discernment, without dodging the force of the past and the uncertainties of the present. It's as if talking about this failed history, tragic for most of the people we met, was essential for them, for all of us and for future generations.
‍

‍
TO MERCY

To decipher, a solo dance about buried memory. À entendre et à écouter, a set of complementary, open-ended words, a collection of interviews with nine people who lived through Algerian independence, conducted in Montpellier from autumn 2009. To be perceived, the tamed light of day. Last April, a trip to Constantine and the Aurès enabled us to photograph and film this emblematic site of the Algerian war. To see and look at, a photo installation of these landscapes. To welcome, the emotion of the animal provoked by Hops, the white donkey, accompanied by young Martha, his friend.
In concrete terms, the original writing of the play lasts 3 hours. Given the small capacity - 30 people - of the Chapelle de la Miséricorde, and to respect and even anticipate the audience's reaction, 3 entrances, at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm, are proposed. The idea is to leave the spectator free to choose his or her own time, and to imagine that a member of the audience could leave after 20 minutes or stay for 3 hours.