Once again, the eight students of scenography of the Ninth School met in Nanterre-Amandiers to imagine together the school pavilion that France will present at the Prague Quadrennial in June 2019. The Ninth School continues to explore the theme of "the island". The Ninth school tells the third workshop, held December 10 to 14, in Nanterre-Amandiers.
The Aquarium
Ten o'clock, Monday, December 10, 2018 At ARTCENA's. The appointment is made, we are starting this new week rue de la Folie-Mericourt in Paris. We are greeted with chouquettes and coffee. We discover the places and meet the team. At noon we have lunch with Philippe [Quesne] then direction Nanterre, RER A.
We have before us a week, a theater, a room. The Aquarium: large glazed area overlooking the outside. Greenery for horizon. We invest the place. Each recreates a work space, sober for some, cluttered and clutter for others.The next few days will be devoted to an autonomous exploration around the theme of the island.
At our disposal some things to draw, paste, cut. Computers allowed. Two days of research and experimentation, FIP radio in the background. Everyone is at his desk, the atmosphere is studious, or almost. Sometimes we hear Shehrazad's laughs, she is watching videos. We scribble, tear, scratch, write, collect. Wednesday afternoon, presentation time. The instruction is simple, report in ten minutes our research, all forms accepted.Eight Islands
Each presentation is singuliar. 8 researches, 8 moments, 8 islands.
- Bianca invites us to the bathroom. In the center, a plastic bag thrones in a green light that covers a the water evacuation, the whole is lulled by the voice of Simon. Sound creation, immersive space, research on waste.
- Estelle's presentation is a game of chance, several possible island stories. On the wall she posted drawings: an island cooking inventory.
- Shehrazad, meanwhile, prepared a small video, a compilation, a zap on the island. Everything goes there, even the island of temptation.
- Simon's interest focused on the idea of treasure, behind his desk he tells us his intellectual wanderings. The why of how a small trunk found itself in front of his office. In this trunk, a treasure, his: one sees by the reflection of a mirror a video of birds.
- Ariane has collected, classified, island images. On a table, flat, his inventory. We are free to complete it, modify it.
- Camille, through a small model tells us a story of magical island. She also drew: always islands, but this time misleading. Formal research, she is interested in what she hides, what can be underneath.
- Clothilde nous présente ses collages, ses dessins, de petites aquarelles. Récupérer, coller, inventer, décaler, assembler, découper, détourner. Au mur, on découvre son monde à elle. Une île en soi. Clothilde shows us her collages, her drawings, small watercolors. Recovering, pasting, inventing, shifting, assembling, cutting, hijacking. On the wall, we discover her world. An island in itself.
- For my part, I displayed on the wall a series of plastic experiments: paintings and collages to talk about the archipelago. An island because there are many. I read a text I wrote on an island memory. Childhood island, vacation home. Clinging to a thread, the photo of this house gravitates from hand to hand.
Enter the Quadrennial by the five-by-five square meter
Thursday we meet Élodie Dauguet, coordinator of scenography and set design workshops at Nanterre-Amandiers, whose work is in Théo Mercier's show and then we visit Claude Régy's decor, as we walk through the production worshops.
The afternoon is devoted to space experimentation exercises: a given space, five meters by five meters - as it will be at the Quadriennale, duets, a micro performance. The idea: to question and to invest the given space, to physically apprehend the Quadrennial.
Friday, end of the week. This time of research and exploration is punctuated by a conference on the theater in the face of climate change.
Lucie Mazières (Sorbonne Nouvelle)