CE QUE J'APPELLE OUBLI by Laurent Mauvignier - in production

Text Laurent Mauvignier /Direction & set design Sophie Langevin /Dramaturgy Youness Anzane /Actor Luc Schiltz / Sound and stage design Jorge De Moura Choreography Emmanuela Iacopini / Costume & Accessories Sophie Van Den Keybus / Lighting & stage management Jef Metten / Assistant directors Jonathan Christoph, Denis Jousselin / crédit Bohumil Kostohrzy

A JUNCTiO production / Coproductions CAPE (Centre Culturel des Arts Pluriels Ettelbruck), Kinneksbond (Centre Culturel de Mamer)
 

This fictional story is loosely based on an incident that took place in Lyon in 2009.

A man enters a supermarket. In the drinks aisle, he opens a can of beer and drinks it. Four security guards appear, surround him and take him into the storeroom. There, they fall on him and, in the middle of the cans, beat him to death. All for nothing. A narrator takes over the story. In a sentence that never ends, he addresses the brother. He puts words to the unthinkable. He seeks to understand the mechanisms that produced this tragedy. How people can die for nothing. He tries to make the victim's feelings heard. He goes through what his life was like; a marginal life that leaves no trace. Like perhaps those who faced him. We navigate between the blows - which the victim can't escape and which make a dull noise - and his life outside and the world around him; his family and those of the security guards and society, which in a way perhaps participated in this.
Through this story, the narrator holds up a mirror to our contemporary society, and at the same time succeeds in connecting us to humanity, in the midst of the isolation produced by individualism and blindness to otherness.

And you come out alive.

(... ) my death is not the saddest event in my life, what's sad in my life is this world with vigilantes and people who ignore each other in dead lives like this pallor, this death all the time, every day, that it finally stops, I assure you, it's not sad like losing the taste for wine and beer, the taste for kissing, for inventing destinies for people in the subway and the taste for walking for hours and hours (...)* * What I call oblivion - Ce que j'appelle oubli

First notes
"Today, in a context of accelerating competition and growing inequality, which fosters the impression that there is no society or state, only a war of all against all, individuals are directly exposed. (...) This negative reaction to the existence of the other, where envy mingles with a feeling of humiliation and powerlessness, is spreading and deepening."
Pankaj Mishra, The Age of Anger, 2017
"A terrible increase in mutual hatred and an almost universal irascibility of everyone toward everyone else."
Hannah Arendt, Political Lives,1956

What I call oblivion is a text I've known for a long time, and I think it's urgent to make it heard today. A muted violence is beginning to emerge in our human relationships. The fear of downgrading is feverish. There's an urgent need to take care of the world and listen to it. Luminous and desperate against the "little" barbarism in action, this text has the benevolent power of a vital impulse before humanity sinks into an inability to look at others and welcome them. Laurent Mauvignier has the words to console us. In this text, the author speaks powerfully about a part of our society. A world we don't see. A world that's hidden or that doesn't show itself. And it's as if I'm picking up on the urgency that drove him to write. To be alive. Active. To look, eyes open, at what's going on outside. To listen to the evils that are silent. To listen to the terrible crisis we're going through today, but which has been latent for a long time, and which is now driving me to be more attentive. I'm looking at my neighborhood, which is located behind Luxembourg station and has a zone reserved for those who probably have a bit of the protagonist's head in this story. But it's also home to people living on very limited means, who have been made so vulnerable by the current crisis. It seems to me that, in reaction to this state of the world, more and more heads and bodies are turning inwards - as if to escape reality. I have this sensation of seeing a kind of large plastic film covering this part of society. To blur it, to make it invisible. In a very cynical way, to "protect" the rest of society from the fear of poverty and marginality.

(... ) they've all lowered their eyes because they've got work to do and lawns to mow or trains to catch, children to pick up after school, and also because they're hoping to escape their own misery, what I call misery, from all the misfortunes when on the way it's a guy like him they come across, naked as a nightmare, his filthy face lit up by their headlights instead of the animals at the end of a wood, on the embankments - and they all lower their eyes or avert them to ward off the jinx that sticks to others(... ). * Ce que j'appelle oubli - Laurent Mauvignier

I wonder and question myself about what I'm doing, how I react (or don't) to these shifty, sometimes stoned looks when I cross the street. How I hand out a coin without looking too closely into the eyes of the person I'm handing it to. For fear of finding a cry for help that I don't know how to answer. Not long ago, I came home to find a girl sleeping on a sleeping bag on the floor in the small hall beneath the mailboxes. The neon light came on and she woke up. There I was with my key to the second door. I was going home to warmth. I talked to her and had no choice but to invite her to sleep over. I offered her something to eat and then a bath. I think she spent part of the night there. In the morning, I snatched her from her slumber. We went out together. She went back to the street, back to her life, and I went back to my business, to my life. Then one day, she came back asking for money. And when I saw her again, I realized that she hadn't disappeared. I think I'd wanted to forget her. And like all the lawn-mowers in Mauvignier's story, I realized that I was on my way home, with groceries in hand and dinner on the table. And I didn't want to be disturbed.

Laurent Mauvignier's text has the power to invite people to look, listen and hear. Together. A song of gratitude for all those we forget, for this brutal world that gives poverty and marginality the color of shame and oblivion. Perhaps we are all that brother to whom the narrator addresses us, as if to console us for having, for a time, forgotten.

ROOM'S PORTRAITS

Portraits in room is situated in the continuity of The apartment which did not sleep. These performances reflect on the intimate captured in a place and a suspended temporality. As if time could stop and be recomposed in another way.

This short form (+/-6 minutes) offers, through women's portraits, to observe, to listen to our time upset by a world in conflict, an acceleration of time, an impossibility to transform our model of society. A society torn by extremes and by the loss of the collective. And, a society in which the reference points are questioned, pushed around, notably on the question of gender which modifies our interior metronomes and the intimate scale.
A society on the alert.

A double movement is searched here: first, the writing which reveals the human contradictions, our ambivalences, our frailties, our power. Then these movements towards "the other" to which the spectators/observers are invited are reinforced by the position they occupy. At a short but constrained distance since they see-listen-observe through an interstice, or in the privileged position of being alone in a room with the performed figure. They become accomplices of the story that can be their own. This proximity and the necessary solitude is reinforced by the text played with headphones.

In these paintings, the decor is part of the story. It is even from a scenographic element that the narration begins and that it is written. Like a mise en abîme through a place, a space. The place as an echo to the scenographed body.

THE MAN WITHOUT PURPOSES, Arne Lygre

THE PRESS :
 https://www.tageblatt.lu/headlines/les-meilleurs-prennent-les-couleurs-des-pires-homme-sans-but-darne-lygre-dans-une-mise-en-scene-de-sophie-langevin/
 

Text Arne Lygre / Director Sophie Langevin Set and costume design Anouk Schiltz, collaboration Denise Schumann / Video and assistant director Jonathan Cristoph / Sound designer Pierrick Grobéty / Lighting designer Daniel Sestak / Sound technician Firmin Bernard / Make-up Zoé Ewen / Painters Noémie Tudoux and Tiziana Raffaelli / Production manager Dani Jung/ Comédien. nes Garance Clavel, Denis Jousselin, Marie Jung, Régis Laroche, Francesco Mormino and Läetitia Pitz
Produced by Théâtre National de Luxembourg / Coopération JUNCTiO
Photo credit ©Boshua

At the mouth of a fjord, a man wants to build a city designed according to his dreams: there, in this city of red houses, he maintains a relationship with a brother, an ex-wife, a daughter - or at least they're presumed to be - governed by money, paying them to behave according to his "good will".

This minimalist, epic play by Norwegian author Arne Lygre challenges our relationship with reality. To money and power. To truth and falsity. At a time when we have collectively plunged into the fabrication of another self on the edge of our virtual walls, and when purchasing power has become the watchword of our societies' well-being. It's dizzying to imagine a Peter who can buy himself a city, a family, feelings and create an illusion... Homme sans but is a ferocious, funny and cynical play about our contemporary world, where artificiality is gradually taking the place of reality, where doubt is growing, and not far away, a destructive void.

Behind the woman who claims to have been my wife.

Who are you? What are you thinking? Who do you talk to?
What do you live for?

Besides my money, I mean.

I don't know you.

https://www.tnl.lu/homme-sans-but

EKINOX - THE DREAMS FEAST

On September 24, the inhabitants of Aumetz and the territory are invited to take part in a Grand Banquet of Aumetz Dreams. On the main square, a great popular ceremony is being prepared. In this enchantment, the months of artistic cooperation will be restored through a great convivial show: sound, textual, visual and game restitutions. For the creation of this evening where we transform Aumetz into an open-air theater, we relied on what the city was saying. It wanted to revive a popular festival, in the image of the metamorphosis it experienced in 1931, during an ecumenical ceremony. She wanted people to dance in her square and to walk through her streets at night, to go to the edge of a field. We imagined a dream party that starts with a banquet on the square, like a wake where actors and audiences tell their dreams, and then dive together into a life-size dream and finish with a dance until the end of the night.

Orchestration des rêves Alexandra Tobelaim, Sophie Langevin, Fabienne Aulagnier  Scénographe Hervé Coqueret  Compositeur Olivier Mellano Auteurs Jean-René Lemoine, Jean-Philippe Rossignol Anthropologue des rêves Arianna Cecconi / Plasticienne Tuia Cherici Compagnie l’Insomnante Claire Rufin, David Bouvard, Aline et Vincent Beaume Compagnie Rara Woulib Julien Marchaisseau, Pierrick De Salvert, Alexandra Satger, Vincent Salagnac Cuisiniers Thierry Casoni, Pierre Schaffer Costumes Karine Marques Ferreira Musiciens Claire Vailler, Vincent Ferrand, Yoann Buffeteau, Lionel Laquerrière Comédiens Lucile Oza, Carlos Martins, Aude- Laurence Biver, Brice Montagne, Laure Roldan, Isabelle Bonillo et les comédiens de l’Académie de l’Union de Limoges: Siméon Ferlin, Youness Polastron, Adelaïde Bigot, Richard Dumy, Lucile Dirand, Joris Rodriguez, Luka Mavaetau, Roxane Coursault-Defrance, Robinson Courtois, Marianne Doucet Création et régie lumière Alexandre Martre Création et régie son Emile Wacquiez Direction technique Christophe Guilloret Régie générale Jean Huleu Danseurs Génération Country,  Choeurs du territoire Les Voix de l’Est, Home Sweet Home, Mosaïque, Mireille Raconte et le groupe amateur de Thionville

THE DREAMS FEAST est le deuxième volet d'EKINOX. 
EKINOX est un projet initié par le NEST /Centre Dramatique National du Nord-Est à Thioville dans le cadre la Capitale de la Culture Européeene ESCH22. Ce projet en deux volets (equinoxe de mars et de septembre) cherche à explorer le sommeil et le vaste continent des rêves. Une expérience totale, à la fois cérébrale et sensorielle, artistique et scientifique. Un collectif d’artistes, chacun.e.s à leur manière, a été réuni pour aborder ces questions. Alexandra Tobelaim, metteure en scène et directrice du NEST - conceptrice du projet  / Fabienne Aulagnier- co-conceptrice et directrice de prodution / Claire Ruffin, La Cie L'insomnante /Julien Marchaisseau, metteur en scène et Adrien Maufay, scénographe, La Compagnie Rara Woulib / Arianna Cecconi, anthropologue et Tuia Cherici, vidéaste / Sophie Langevin, metteure en scène, Cie JUNCTiO

THE APARTMENT THAT DID NOT SLEEP

PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATION
4 pieces. 4 stories. 4 insomnia
4 paintings in a 5' room
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/769873784

"Insomnia is a world in itself, it has its rules and its reasons for being.

The apartment that did not sleep
A woman, on a bed, in a room with chiaroscuro light.
Boys and girls, around a sofa, in front of a television.
A woman sitting in profile at a kitchen table.
A man and his reflection in a bathroom mirror.

These characters form photographic pictures, cinema apparitions. Their images make up the apartment that was not sleeping.
The public wanders in the closed space of the apartment, with for only access some angles, like skylights.
For each sequence of this visit, we hear a voice-over, on headphones, telling moments of life. Past-present, as many desires, questionings and troubles.
The images seem fixed, the bodies immobile.
However, the movement of the voice makes these distant biographies close.

L'appartement qui ne dormait pas reveals the inner experience of these characters, our doubles.

The time of the sleepless nights or grey nights (the cut between) is interminable by the energy mobilized to find rest. To succeed in resuming the course of sleep. It is as if time itself was not sleeping. It becomes in its turn body. It loses its abstraction because it is counted, felt in its flow.
Time in the nights is alive. It becomes the actor and the material of the intimate stories of these people.
The nights belong to the dreams or the sleepless nights, in both cases our unconscious is invited.
It offers a magical and dreamy journey or a nocturnal awakening that does not allow the body and mind to rest.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/769873784

Conception, writing, direction Sophie Langevin Scenography Sophie Langevin and Hervé Coqueret Photo Bohumil Kostohryz
with Denis Jousselin, Célestin Alain-Launay, Youness Polastron, Adelaïde Bigot, Richard Dumy, Luka Mavaetau, Sophie Langevin, Hélène Luizard, Marianne Doucet

L'appartement qui ne dormait pas was conceived and created for EKINOX.
EKINOX is a project initiated by the NEST / National Dramatic Center of the North-East in Thioville within the framework of the European Capital of Culture ESCH22. This two-part project (March and September equinox) seeks to explore sleep and the vast continent of dreams. A total experience, both cerebral and sensory, artistic and scientific. A collective of artists, each in their own way, has been brought together to address these issues. Alexandra Tobelaim, director and director of NEST - project designer / Fabienne Aulagnier - co-designer and production manager / Claire Ruffin, La Cie L'insomnante /Julien Marchaisseau, director and Adrien Maufay, set designer, La Compagnie Rara Woulib / Arianna Cecconi, anthropologist and Tuia Cherici, video artist / Sophie Langevin, director

THE LAMENT OF THE ORCHIDS

INSTALLATION
3'27''

Orchids are placed in front of the world, in the windows of houses and they feel particularly welcome in Luxembourg.
They are the observers of our world. They are the witnesses of our behavior. They do not move and become invisible. They can thus scrutinize us in all subjectivity. It is a world in itself. Unknown to most people.
The Orchids are spotted in the streets and put into play. The text is diffused by a speaker.

273 DAYS
by Jean-Philippe Rossignol

Excerpt: "You're early, aren't you? Or am I a little late? I don't recognize all the faces, some of them do. I woke up a few minutes ago. It's as if I'm coming out of the depths. Do you know the relationship of orchids to sleep? Our long absences. Because our life has its other side. Beauty kills us from the inside. Flowering is a fight. After the magnificence in public, we must consolidate, take a big break, secretly recharge our nutrients. This work is vital. I have just slept 9 months. 273 days of sleep. In one go"

Conception and voice Sophie Langevin Text Jean-Philippe Rossignol Scenography Sophie Langevin et Adrien Maufay

The Lament of the orchids was conceived and created for EKINOX.
EKINOX is a project initiated by the NEST / National Dramatic Center of the North-East in Thioville within the framework of the European Capital of Culture ESCH22. This two-part project (March and September equinox) seeks to explore sleep and the vast continent of dreams. A total experience, both cerebral and sensory, artistic and scientific. A collective of artists, each in their own way, has been brought together to address these issues. Alexandra Tobelaim, director and director of NEST - project designer / Fabienne Aulagnier - co-designer and production manager / Claire Ruffin, La Cie L'insomnante /Julien Marchaisseau, director and Adrien Maufay, set designer, La Compagnie Rara Woulib / Arianna Cecconi, anthropologist and Tuia Cherici, video artist / Sophie Langevin, director

SHE HAD HER DAUGHTER'S HAND IN HERS

Performance / 6 '

Conception, writing, performance Sophie Langevin / credit photo Jon Campfens / Production Junctio
Performed at OCAD Toronto, Room# 334

Extract from the artist's review Simone Jones, Toronto 2022

“In life, meaning is not instantaneous. Meaning is discovered in what connects and cannot exist without development. Without a story, without an unfolding, there is no meaning.” Berger, John., “Appearances: The Ambiguity of the Photograph”

In Sophie Langevin’s performance “She had her daughter’s hand in hers” the artist assumes a static position for a duration of three hours. Staged as a tableau, the pose offers the viewer an image of a woman caught in mid-flight as she reaches protectively to grasp the hand of her unseen child. The stillness of the pose is strongly informed by photography. Yet unlike a photograph, where viewers are positioned as observers, we are invited to experience this work as an encounter.
On the surface, the work functions as theatre, but there is an important difference: this work is staged for an audience of one. Individual viewers don headphones before they enter the space of the performance. A woman’s voice (it is the voice of the static figure) describes a situation where they must remove their child from an abusive relationship. Viewers may move around the room in a manner of their own choosing: they can approach the figure, walk around her, or they can maintain their distance. The story that unfolds in the headphones, and the raw physicality of the woman’s presence, connects the audience with her plight but also strongly suggests a future. Time, although seemingly frozen, continues. Narrative forms a connective tissue between the moment of the woman’s decision and the possible future that this decision represents.

The physical space of the encounter between the performer and the audience member creates an intimacy where observation is embodied rather than purely visual. Langevin’s insistence on shared presence, implicates the audience member in an event that is continuously unfolding.