LISTENING TO THINGS / HOLDING ASSEMBLY
LISTENING TO THINGS / ASSEMBLY
Our artistic research is permeated by the question of animation, that is to say by the act of "giving life to" and considering what is potentially already animated in everything that surrounds us. In our performances, this is expressed through the invention of tool-objects and living scenographies-installations (notably thanks to sound and new technologies) that constitute separate worlds.
These worlds, these microcosms, we grant them autonomy and we listen to the networks that weave between the imagination of each (artists, spectators) and the objects. And it is precisely in this particular regime of attention to objects that the entire poetics of our theater is developed: to listen to things in order to better listen to the world.
We advocate the idea that innovation, artistic excellence, and the renewal of forms and aesthetics must be accessible and shared by all audiences from a young age, just as by those who are farthest from cultural offerings. That is why a large part of our performances are designed as autonomous devices that can play both on large theater stages and in community celebration halls in rural areas or neighborhoods in an immediate proximity relationship with the spectators.
In this approach, the relationship that forms around the work is central, and the work of addressing specific audiences is a political issue for us: we pay renewed attention to the choice of tools we implement to convey a particular narrative, artistic journey, or experience to the audiences. And if we integrate this question of addressing from the very beginning of a project's writing, it is precisely to shift it, to shake up its form, and to reinvent new ways to provoke encounters for each proposal (capacity, device, immersion, participation).
We believe that in a world that resists and eludes us, it is necessary to take the opposite stance to the prevailing cynicism and to deploy, like small protected ecosystems, all possible spaces where we can - artists and inhabitants of the territories - gather to live together something that elevates us a little above ourselves (1). For we are convinced that everything that confronts us with our plural identities, everything that evokes empathy in us, connects us and restores strength, hope, and control over our lives.
(1)Julien Brunneau "Worlds/assembly - an introduction" COI Review - No. 5 November 2022
