L'A. at Théâtre de Gennevilliers
There is a time for performance and a time without it.
A time when art happens, and a time when it clearly doesn’t.
There are artists out there who keep you on your toes
or at least remind you that culture isn’t confined to the stage.
In 2007, when Pascal Rambert invited Rachid Ouramdane and L'A
for a residency at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, he was aware they shared the same outlook. Namely, that there’s a two-way link between daily life and art: each fuels the other. That going out to meet the unknown – communities, environments, backgrounds – means constantly readjusting your work. That the creative process is not always in synch with what’s politically correct or respectable.
For this residency, which will continue until 2010, Rachid Ouramdane has joined forces with the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, as has Daniel Buren for the visual arts and Olivier Assayas for film. Together, they devise new ways of overlapping creative energy and daily life. Alongside choreography workshops and open-house discussions, new forms of encounters are taking shape, interweaving urban space and the history of its residents.
Sport and its codes of behavior, and most of all the passion with which teenagers do sports, inspired the project Surface de réparation, involving 12 young athletes from Gennevilliers. The show premiered in 2006 and was performed the following February in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
Collaboration with other cultural institutions of Gennevilliers, such as the Jean Vigo cinema and the Edouard Manet gallery, has been giving rise to tailor-made events for each show.
