The award will be presented at the third annual Creative Time Summit conference in NYU on September 23, 2011. Jeanne van Heeswijk, known for her intensive, long-term commitment to community organizing and social involvement as artistic practice, is the third artist to receive the Annenberg Prize. Previous recipients of the award include the Yes Men (2009) for their ongoing efforts to raise awareness around critical social issues through their media-savvy interventions and Rick Lowe (2010) for his work on Project Row Houses in Houston, which has become a model for the integration of the arts into a neighbourhood infrastructure.

Jeanne van Heeswijk‘s work is distinguished by her strong social engagement with citizens to enact social change in their own communities. Her practice integrates artists, designers, architects, software developers, governments, and community members in the planning and realization of cultural production, the creation of new public spaces, and the remodelling of existing ones. In particular, she took part in the Blue House project in Amsterdam, where artists from all over the world were invited to interact with inhabitants of the Ijburg neighbourhood.

“For my practice, becoming part of the community and being part of the whole process of change that a neighbourhood is undergoing is key.” said Jeanne van Heeswijk. “And for this you need to create an understanding of public domain as a shared space, where everyone’s contribution makes a difference. I am very honoured by this award for my work, which is the collaborative effort of many people who share the need to work towards a better world in which everyone has a stake.”

On Thursday 1^st of September, Venue 5 of the Mobile site took place on the car park of the botanical gardens, behind the Bordeaux-Lac velodrome. The goal of Venue 5 was to analyse the highlights of the Mobile site.

WORKSHOP

The afternoon started with a refreshing display of all kinds of mobile units on the site itself:

The Bordeaux Mobile library (www.bordeaux.fr), that goes out to meet potential readers in remote parts of the city.

Joël Coutance’s organ-lorry, a charmingly rustic device created by the showman to accompany a carousel. Joël never conceals his enthusiasm for spreading joy around him with his barrel organ, whose melodious and very festive jingles punctuated the day.

With his pizza van, Gilles chose geographical and financial freedom, and is happy to imagine the many surprises that his nomadic life still holds in store.

Chris and his ‘La dinette’ snack bar were stationed every day near the movable bridge, and offer a hearty catering service in periurban areas where it is usually lacking.

Jean Mayer, who has always been a 2CV car lover, presented a colourful sample of his collection: an off-road 2CV with camouflage bodywork and a green “trellis” 2CV, on which vine has been meticulously grown.

Finally, Jojo Bulle (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zf56Ldw3lU) delighted us with his quirky and ingenious mobile constructions. He arrived on Thursday in a giant mobile trolley built entirely with his own hands and housing on the occasion a genuine farmyard. His sidekicks rode two motorbikes that seemed to come straight from the black leather and metallic science-fiction world of Mad Max. The public was invited to take a bike ride… or just blow a few soap bubbles.

FORESHADOWING

Eric Dordan and Wen Cai from the ‘Nous sommes’ collective presented their research named Architecture à emporter, capacité maximale – moyen minimum (Take-away architecture, maximum capacity – minimum means). After having listed 21 mobile units (22, including our site) during a “safari” through periurban areas, where the nomadic and autonomous structures above make up for the lack of catering services, ‘Nous sommes’ then created their own mobile, participatory, and functional unit: a long barbecue-bike where the public was invited to cook its own kebabs.

The artist Stefan Shankland (http://www.stefanshankland.com/) then presented his project to include contemporary artistic practices in urban mutation and development. For several years, he has been trying to make the artist’s workspace a part of reality, thereby proceeding to cast aside the object-work, and encouraging the creative processes and meetings, which lead to the completion of an artistic project. Let us note his interest for the recognition of workshop results, with ‘HQAC’ (Haute Qualité Artistique et Culturelle), and the ‘Trans305’ project (as part of the ZAC du plateau in Ivry sur Seine), whose goal was to progressively materialize the idea of the site as an actual workshop and of the mobile workshop itself.

WITNESSES

Results of the request for proposals:

Autocool (http://www.autocool.fr/) is an association that encourages car-pooling: a sustainable, green and cheap way of getting around, based on the alternate use of a collective vehicle.

Le Musée Imaginé – The Imagined Museum (http://www.lemuseeimagine.fr/) is an association that tries to bring art within everyone’s reach by taking works of art out of museums and exhibiting them in unusual places, closer to the people, hoping that they will then choose to visit the museum of their own accord.

Guidon futé (http://bordeaux-tourisme.com/pl/visites.pl?lg=fr&id=600) proposes an unusual vision of Bordeaux to the public. This is achieved by biking through the city, with a participatory dimension. Guidon futé now has about fifty bikes in its ranks.

Sénac peintre (www.over-blog.com/profil/blogueur-2730363.html) creates an art based on recycling, putting together picture books with magazines, newspapers, and flyers. The artist’s goal is to turn consumer objects into temporary objects, in which the reader may well become a watcher, thereby opening up to a whole new range of reactions towards the object.

Grégory Seguin and his association Le Caboulot (http://www.myspace.com/lecaboulot/blog) influence local development, notably by creating shared gardens in the Caudéran area. Grégory Seguin is also a lover of poetry and improvised speech, of which he made a demonstration on Thursday.

In his “shaping workshop”, Damien Billet (http://ceciestunexercice.wordpress.com/category/developpement-durable/) practices an original form of recycling by making skateboards from salvaged snowboards: yet another good example of sustainable mobility!

EXCHANGES

The exchanges were focused on the theme of Cultural Mobility: from the centre to the outskirts/vs/ from the outskirts to the centre, towards a participatory culture. On Thursday, a great number of participants were invited to the Mobile site’s round table: Pierre Mahey (architect, town planner, coordinator of the ‘Arpenteurs’ association, and administrator of the Association for democracy and local and social education); Stefan Shankland (artist); Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvouroux (philosopher, writer, journalist, and playwright); Anaïs Théviot (doctoral student in politics, expert in the question of participation on the Internet); Luigi Coppola (artist, representative artistic director of Evento 2011); Sylvie Violan (director and programme planner of the Carré-Colonnes des Jalles in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles and Blanquefort); Eric Chevance (creator and ex-director of the Tout Nouveau Théâtre of Bordeaux); Cyril Jaubert (director of the ‘Opera Pagaï’ theatre company in Bordeaux); Gabi Farage (architect, artist, co-director of the ‘Bruit du Frigo’ organization in Bordeaux, and associate curator of Evento 2011); Damien Mouchague (director of the Counsel for Sustainability of the CUB, and coordinator of the group on the town’s identity); Monique Potiron-Noguès (representative of the network of mutual knowledge exchanges in Gradignan); Cécile Cano (in charge of visual arts at the Department of development and artistic action of the city of Bordeaux); Yvan Detraz (co-director of the ‘Bruit du Frigo’, Bordeaux).

The intention of this round table was to discuss participatory culture, a notion that needs to be renewed by questioning its primary function: how can we be together? The diversity of experiences, actions and research that the participants shared with the audience enabled a highlighting of the current issues raised by the notion of participation and the exploration of potential territories that this issue calls for: the fluctuation between institutional and popular actions, the current evolution of participatory culture and the nature of the bond between culture and its audience. In this case, it is considered from the point of view of the venue, setting, contents, language, quality, or the personal and collective commitment that such a move towards open participation implies.

ILLUSIONS

As from 22.00, on the occasion of the Cinésites, the ‘Jean Vigo’ association (http://www.jeanvigo.com) organised an outdoor screening on an inflatable screen of a great classic of its kind: George Millers’s Mad Max (1979). The screening came with popcorn baked specially for the event on the ‘Nous sommes’ collective barbecue.

To conclude the evening of Venue 5 of the Mobile site, Nicolas Pradeau and Arnaud Castagné from Betamax proposed Des voitures et des hommes, a new audiovisual creation in relation to the theme of Venue 5: a particularly stimulating sonic road trip, fantastically coupled with the pair’s cinematographic brainwaves… Let us note Enzo G. Castellari’s incredible production, The New Barbarians (1983), a mix between a science-fiction movie and a spaghetti western, a new and cheerful take on the second part of Mad Max… and a delightfully perplexing experience!

The inauguration of the “Evolving theatre” site took place on Friday 2 September on the Place André Meunier next to the “Cabane à Gratter” in the presence of Gabi Farage, associate curator of EVENTO’s artistic direction and all the participants of the project.

The inauguration of the “Evolving theatre” site took place on Friday 2 September on the Place André Meunier next to the “Cabane à Gratter” in the presence of Gabi Farage, associate curator of EVENTO’s artistic direction and all the participants of the project.

Based on the principles of co-construction and citizen participation, essential to this second biennial orchestrated by Michelangelo Pistoletto, the “Evolving theatre” (conceived by Bureau d’Etudes, Marjetica Potrc and Ooze) is an experimental artistic project whose goal is to offer inhabitants a new model of urban ecology. Thanks to an architectural structure, a landscape arrangement and artistic, educational and convivial actions, the idea is to inspire the final project of the Place.

Since the commitment of the participants (signing of the charter of collaboration last July), the site has come on a long way and one can now see the first structural elements in wood of the soon-to-be architectural and environmental construction.

Imagined by the artists with the help of the inhabitants, the architects Alan Gentil (Bureau Baroque) and Marc Berbedes (Bureau d’Etudes Bois Structures, who contributed for evento 2009 in the construction of the Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata’s footpath) worked on the sketches to give life and viability to the architectural project.

A unique project where the inhabitants are invited to take over this area with the artists, to dream the city differently. A sort of urban utopia that guarantees the future of some of tomorrow’s societies.

Photos : Pierre PLANCHENAULT

Evento 2011’s Venue 4 of the Mobile site took place on Thursday 25^th of October. The site was set up at the ‘L’oxer’ riding centre on Bellevue Avenue, behind the Mérignac airport runways. This typically temporary area was the opportunity to consider the themes of Contemporary boundaries, edges, walls, and enclosures, but also of cosmopolitanism.

WORKSHOP

Venue 4 started at 17.00 with a demonstration of mini and micro drones by AMKZ (http://www.amkz.fr/), experts in robotics and aerial research. The fineness of these little technological wonders is essentially used in filmmaking, and calls for the great mastery of radio control, the beauty of which we were allowed to witness. The visual effect was gripping, with these strange futuristic insects composing an aerial ballet, accentuated by the planes taking off in the background.

WITNESSES

After this unusual challenging of gravity, members of two associations came to talk about their respective initiatives to try and abolish the boundaries between knowledge and culture:

Humanisme sans frontière association (http://www.humanismesansfrontiere.com/) was represented on Thursday by one of its two founders, G.S. Zeiller, former professor of philosophy. It is a philosophical association, which defends the idea of giving access to the discipline to anyone wishing to “put their happiness into perspective”, far from elitist prejudices about the access to knowledge. The members of the association materialise their approach of the subject in a showcase, the Espace Philo, 42 rue Bouquière: a place of conferences, exchanges, and meetings, where a smile is most welcome.

Effort 2 Conscience is an association from Mérignac, and was represented by the artist Kalam (a pun using the words referring to the calligraphy instrument and to “speech” in Arabic). Since 2003, the association has focused on encouraging personal expression through writing, film, and music, by making these accessible to all kinds of audiences, with the help of workshops. This intercultural approach based essentially on action has now spread through all of Aquitaine. Since last year, the association has been a member of the RAMA (http://www.le-rama.org/), Réseau Aquitain des Musiques Actuelles.

FORESHADOWING

Eric Troussicot then welcomed Paul Jorion onto the set of the Mobile site. As an expert researcher in social studies with an atypical training, both academic and self-taught, Paul Jorion is an authority in the fields of artificial intelligence and the current economic crisis. His blog (www.pauljorion.com/blog/) is one of the most browsed today, and he is the author of many works, such as L’argent mode d’emploi (Money, A Handbook, Fayard, 2009) and La crise. Des subprimes au séisme financier planétaire (The Crisis. From Subprimes to Planetary Seism, Fayard, 2008). On Thursday, he presented his vision of our current economy, whose complexity and abstraction make it impossible to fully control and correctly analyse. The extent of this complexity gives the upper hand to instability, thereby placing the entire economic system in a deadlock that nobody seems to be able to seriously untangle. Using his knowledge of both current affairs and the historical foundations of contemporary society, Paul Jorion proposes the idea of a crisis that could be solved by a radical change of attitude and a reverting to a controllable and analysable system. He suggests that we take a step back, and pick the right ideas without making the same mistakes, to set up a sustainable economic system: “Unknitting is no longer good enough, we need to find long-term solutions.” This idea of a kind of salutary step backwards was illustrated by the example of borders, which may not need to be abolished at all costs, but instead be thought of in alternate ways.

EXCHANGES

For the ensuing exchanges, Eric Troussicot and Paul Jorion were joined by: Bruce Bégout, senior lecturer at Bordeaux III University, philosopher and writer (L’expérience de Las Vegas, 2002; Lieux communs, 2003; Le park, 2010, all three published by Allia), expert in Husserl’s phenomenology, and who bases his work on an observation of everyday life and spaces; Mathieu Larnaudie, arts and philosophy student, writer and co-director of the Inculte review and publishing house, who uses his work to criticize the prevailing discourse (Pôle de residence momentanée, Les Petits Matins Editions, 2007) and to analyse the 2008 crisis and the banks who participated and suffered from it (Les Effondrés, Actes Sud Editions, 2010); Jean-Baptiste Naudy, from the ‘Société Réaliste’ collective, who presented his artistic cooperative’s approach, later that evening; and Jean-Eric Malabre, president of the ANAFé (www.anafe.org), Association Nationale d’Assistance aux Frontières pour les Etrangers created in 1989, which provides legal and humanitarian support for foreigners at the French border. The work of the association to help respect the fundamental rights of foreigners in such delicate situations has encouraged collective questioning and the account of various experiences pertaining to the notion of borders nowadays: areas where unique and obscure administrative and political power is excessively exerted. The paradox between the hyper mobility of our times and the increase of its social hyper flux was also analysed during this exchange. Borders become a crucial point, a tension zone in a world where humankind is determined both by its exchanges and its differences with otherness, where property and territoriality have become key words. The participants proposed examples of unconventional borders: the notion of controlling borders through freedom is integral part of the approach ‘Société Réaliste’ proposes; Paul Jorion suggested a world of de facto international digital flow, in which the only current border would be the specific language of cyberspace experts; Bruce Bégout, in response to the fantasies of infinitude provided by positivist science-fiction, reminded us of that humankind needs to rethink the natural borders that govern its world: a world where the good and the bad, the outside and the inside are the sole representations of our system of thought.

ILLUSIONS

Transversality and borders of Société Réaliste’s peripheral work

That same evening, Jean-Baptiste Naudy, one of the founding members of ‘Société Réaliste’ (http://societerealiste.net/), presented the Parisian artistic cooperative, which devotes itself to the dismantling and rerouting of the representations and myths that forge contemporary society’s political and economic systems. With stunning irony and lucidity, ‘Société Réaliste’ carries out a borderline and offbeat art, to address great themes of the post modernist era: from architecture (Ministère de l’architecture), to numismatics (Marka), but also a vast topographical, plastic and semantic exploration of our world’s walls and borders (Limes New Roman, Etats donnés). Their latest project, Empire, State, Building, was presented at the Jeu de Paume in Paris last spring.

Cockpit, by Betamax

To conclude the evening of Venue 4 of the Mobile site, Nicolas Pradeau and Arnaud Castagné proposed a new acoustic and visual creation, Cockpit, taking the audience through a contemplative and aerial journey.

Crédit photo : Pierre Planchenault

Whether it be the strong mobilisation of music enthusiasts for the Sound Res with the active participation of the Conservatoire de Bordeaux Jacques Thibaud, but also the contribution of graphic designers and illustrators for arc en rêve and STEALTH.unlimited‘s project at the Abattoirs, EVENTO 2011is an event of contemporary creation that calls upon international artists as well as the creative abundance of the territory.

The Sites, real laboratories of open and shared artistic creation, are strong examples of this local implication. More than 60 non-profit organisations are participating, alongside the Halle des Douves association, in the project of Dutch artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk p, to offer a daily programme from 6 to 16 October, from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Evolving Theatre on Place André Meunier also calls upon the collaboration of structures and inhabitants of the neighbourhood, through all kinds of workshops set up from September.
The participation of the Bordeaux Fine Arts School with two creative and original projects, as well as the contribution of EXODO‘s project of the revitalisation of the Cours de l’Argonne, also add to the territorial collaboration.

The Central Parc project is mobilising many structures of the Grand Parc neighbourhood, whether it be the social and cultural centre, the animation centre, the Library, but also several associations. The latter were able to present their citizen approach at the stop of the mobile site at Grand Parc on 2 July. The mobile unit, which has been travelling across the territory ever since, offers to anyone interested in talking about his/her individual or collective approach of solidarity, the possibility to answer the Wanted ad that has been broadcast since June.

Photo credits : pierre planchenault

Radio Grenouille’s travelling team: Julie De Muer, Nelly Flecher, Jérémy Garniaux, Christophe Modica, Floriane Pochon, Tony Régnauld, Xavier Thomas.

Next stop of the mobile unit: 25 August.

1/ Describe in a few lines your project for EVENTO 2011

Radio Grenouille is a cultural and creative radio based in Marseille. For EVENTO, it is setting up camp for a few weeks to explore, observe and practice its hybrid media, taking with it journalists, film directors, sound artists, and even a cartographer, for a travelling encounter with the territory of Bordeaux and its inhabitants.

At the crossroads of a participative practice, a documentary approach and a resource function, this radio project is:

- a way to build resources for the mobile site,

- a system of artistic collecting and restitution of a sensitive feedback of the territory,

- a way of bringing people together and creating debate on different points of view and practices put forward by EVENTO.

From the end of August we will start our open exploration of the mobile site, to create a sort of sound journal. As a combination of reports and sound creation, you will find questions to be debated, some behind-the-scenes info, inhabitants that live there or are passing by, artist explorers, sound landscapes. You will be able to listen to the different episodes and subscribe to the podcasts on Grenouille’s website.

From 5 to 9 September, we will set up in Bègles for a collective exploration. Several exploration methods involving sound, media but also cartography will be brought together: we will propose for example a mental cartography workshop and “home-made” aerial maps, becoming the base of a sound collection on the notion of “proximity”.

The sound artist Christophe Modica will explore the different types of housing of the territory (the old fishing cabins, converted industrial buildings, a social housing estate).

For the restitution on 9 September, we will take over part of the semi-wild park of Mussonville.

The mobile site will set down and we will activate a live show (Perched Quarrel) dealing with new forms of habitat and ways of co-habitation, sound and visual installations conceived thanks to the exploration mentioned above, and also a Night of listening.

We can also camp or just spend a moment listing to a mixed flow of documentaries, sound creation and musical compositions that will tell us about the city in a slightly different – sometimes far-fetched – manner, between fiction and reality.

Finally, during EVENTO, our “radio HQ” will be around the unit of the mobile site. With a daily show live and in public, we will be able to dialogue with artists, project bearers, inhabitants, researchers, in situ reporters…

The travelling team: Julie De Muer, Nelly Flecher, Jérémy Garniaux, Christophe Modica, Floriane Pochon, Tony Régnauld, Xavier Thomas.

2/ For Michelangelo Pistoletto, art has to be at the center of responsible social change. Can you comment in regards to your project for EVENTO 2011?

As a cultural media coming from the movement of free radio, Radio Grenouille built itself through the exploration of the relationship between art and society, and in a practice of individual and collective activism. By using the communication field as an information field but also a space for poetic, social and political practices, Grenouille offers new forms of creative mediation and/or creation processes that forge bonds, not only with their production mode but also thanks to their formal result.

At a time that announces the end of a certain form of “autonomy” of art, as predicted in the 20^th century, and where the temptation is paradoxically big to use art more as an aspect of territorial marketing, it is fundamental to bring to light the importance of the role of some artistic approaches to propose and experiment new paradigms (living together, the creation of common goods, the transformation of the city…). Grenouille tries to do this, by relaying this approach and by also putting them to practice with its own tools (sound, communication).

3/ What do you hope will remain of EVENTO2011 after the biennial?

Tools (intellectual, for venues, methods of cooperation…) and new means for the Bordelais.

A major solo exhibition of the recent work of Michelangelo Pistoletto, artistic director of Evento, Bordeaux 2011, has just opened at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

For this exhibition, “The Mirror of Judgment,” the artist has imagined a labyrinth which dictates the movement of the visitor through the rooms of the gallery, a path punctuated by a series of sculptures. Michelangelo Pistoletto describes the labyrinth as being a “winding and unpredictable route which brings us to a place of revelation and knowledge.”
Playing with the architecture of the Serpentine’s rooms, while using economy of means, the exhibition manipulates the spatial perceptions of the visitor, transforming him/her into an integral part of the work.

The exhibit also proposes elements of the Troisième Paradis project, which advocates social transformation through art, as well as representations of the four main religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.

This installation is also the occasion for the artist to continue his research on the notion of participation, an idea which was greatly developed starting in 1998 with the creation of his Fondazione Pistoletto a center for the study and promotion of creativity in all its forms in Cittadellarte (Biella, Italy).

The Serpentine Gallery is one of London’s major modern and contemporary art spaces. Its exhibitions, as well as its architectural and pedagogical programs, attract as many as 800,000 people every year.

Michelangelo Pistoletto
The Mirror of Judgement
July 12 – September 17, 2011

www.serpentinegallery.org
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA.

Crédit Photo : Sebastiano Pellion

EVOCATION

The afternoon started with a Walk-Evocation of the Memory of the Thermal Power Station, which ceased activity in 2005 and is being dismantled. For two hours, the public was able to explore this singular territory where nature and industry clash: an occasion to soak up the place, to walk on the geographical and historical traces of the power station, guided by the HMCA collective, made up of former power station technicians: M. Kali, M. Bompan, M. Casanova and by the collective, “Jesuisnoirdemonde.”

WORKSHOP

Then came the contribution by the members of the HMCA association, who are working to reconstitute the economic, sociological and human history of the site, motivated by a collective desire on the part of neighboring inhabitants and former employees to save a local historical monument, in the process of disappearing, from being forgotten. The association is still collecting the greatest possible number of witness accounts and is reflecting upon a formalization of the results. Using different tools, the artists and former power station employees work toward the common objective of conserving this memory.

CASTING OF INITIATIVES

Ambès’ local council for youth, represented by its young Mayoress, participates in numerous cultural and communal activities with Ambès residents: performances, group gardens, aid to senior citizens. Marius Petitpas is a dance association based in Ambès which proposes, in partnership with the association, La Clez des champs, a project which helps the Restos du Coeur soup kitchens: a series of performances proposed to the public in exchange for non-perishable food donations.

EXCHANGES

The participants were invited to discuss the real causes of the dismantling of the power station and more generally, industrial transformations in the Bordeaux region. In the face of the irremediable de-industrialization of the area due to today’s economic realities, the question of the future of the site was posed: (De-pollution? Agricultural development? Renewable resources?) In spite of the impossibility of coming up with a final and definitive solution, the different specialties and points of view of the participants contributed to clarifying the future of this territory which awaits a new existence. Approaching this issue from the perspective of the imagination and aesthetics of the territory as well as the “human side” was, during this exchange, another way of bringing possible uses to light.

ILLUSIONS

1. Return from the exploration: The strangeness of the peninsula, by Eric Chauvier and Thibault Taconet , who proposed images and words of a somber and disconcerting beauty Tuesday, wherein mutilated nature progressively recovers its right to the territory of the peninsula in the process of de-industrialization (the concept of transbotanism). This exploration provokes a shift in the way of seeing a forgotten site on Bordeaux’s margins, “the unconscious of the historically preserved city.”

2. A voyage in comparison, “Tchernobyl on tour” with Elena Costelian (artist) who shared her off-beat experience by way of a visit of the Tchernobyl site in a touristic setting, orchestrated for the occidental point of view.

3.Betamax Sound: “Does it Float?”– audiovisual creation (Nicolas Pradeau and Arnaud Castagné):
The evening finished with atmospheric sounds and contemplative video sequences, which for one last time plunged the public into the strange and sublime landscape of the peninsula, and into the quiescent hope of a continuation.

Photos Pierre Planchenault

With the accompaniment of Gabi Farage, , associate commissioner of the artistic direction of EVENTO, all the participants – residents, visitors, members of neighborhood associations (the André Meunier collective, Friche and Cheap, Yakafaucon, ATD quart monde, La Cabane à gratter, l’Epicerie solidaire…) as well as all of the associated artists – met last Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Pl. André Meunier to sign a collaboration charter.

Collectively drawn up last week, this charter’s objective is to establish the very foundations of this experimental creation and to commit the participants to a common philosophical and participative process.

In addition to the artistic and experimental aspects, the Théâtre Évolutif would like to open the debate and to provide cultural and personal accompaniment for the local population to bring them toward a more ecological and respectful model with regard to the environment.

This project, which will be an unprecedented moment for creation and reciprocal exchange between residents, experts and artists, a symbol of the urban utopia, indispensable to this re-evolution, will be in permanent creation/evolution until October 16.

See the collaboration charter

Photos Pierre Planchenault

The “Chantier Mobile” continued its urban and social exploration last Friday, establishing itself in Lormont’s Bois Fleuri park, where the music festival: les “Hauts de Garonne” was taking place.
The second station of the Mobile Site explored the theme: Unity in diversity, diversity in unity: what significance does the concept of diversity, widely employed in the political, social and cultural domains today, take on? It is around this vast question that the Mobile Site’s guests were able to share their points of view and experiences all afternoon.

CASTING OF INITIATIVES

Firstly, in its outdoor auditorium, the Mobile Site welcomed the participants of the Casting of Initiatives, resulting in the Wanted ad which was launched last June. Frederic Lefloc’h presented Coop’alpha, an activities cooperative which opened its doors in 2006 in Lormont and which proposes an accommodations service and free legal training to companies. It is characterized by the diversity of its offerings and tends to promote diversity, and synergy of different companies, which is mutually advantageous. Coop’alpha currently houses more than 90 businessmen/women and is in the process of creating a specialized construction branch.

Léonard Héliot then joined the Mobile Site to talk about Diversciné Productions, a Bordeaux audiovisual production association which works in institutions and events as well as image education. Léonard Héliot reported Friday on the educational aspect of the association, which is, notably, doing a workshop on the theme of cultural diversity with a SEGPA class from the Grand Parc neighborhood. This action’s objective is to bring aid in to school structures from the outside by proposing the children a free, neutral and federative means of expression about a subject which is often difficult to tackle.
Siti-Anrafa Said Ali in her turn, came to present the association, Esprit Métis which aims to develop and promote multiculturalism – social and cultural intermixing. She shared the different projects and actions through which the association works to encourage socio-cultural relations, and to defend values which foster open-mindedness, with the assembly. Esprit Métis publishes a magazine, which is now in its 10th issue, and which honors a different country each time. A bi-monthly radio show, broadcast since 2009 on Radio Campus Campus has expanded upon these portraits in an attempt to go beyond clichés, in a friendly atmosphere. In October, 2010, the association organized Métis et Vous, a culinary and musical event. Finally, it made a music video whose goal it was to teach the basics of sign language; a short film on deafness is currently being envisaged.
Joëlle Dubois, Esprit Métis’ creator’s sister, also known as Auntie Jo, concluded the Casting of Initiatives with the presentation of her blog Auntie Jo Funny Kitchen (winner of Elle’s best blog prize in 2009) which she prefers to see as a way to share a personal universe rather than as a simple culinary blog. The blog, a melting pot of origins and novelties, enables her to speak about countries, families and cultures through an everyday activity.

EXCHANGES: Unity in diversity or more exactly: diversity in unity

After playing a recording of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, Station 2 exchanges started. Around the table of the Mobile Site were: Pierre de Gaétan Njikam Mouliom (Mission chief for the Mairie de Bordeaux for: diversity, citizenship, associative life, African affairs), Aude Soubirou (Doctor and professor of Political Sciences), Eric Cattelain (Doctor in Linguistics/Expert on Languages and Culture and Coordinator of the Conseil de la Diversité, creator of the universal writing UNIDEO), Cheikh Snow (anthropologist, musician; questions on diversity, intellectualism) as well as Auntie Jo and the association Esprit Métis.
The guests tried to define together what, for them, evoked diversity, a term which has become unclear and labile, around which the different participants work together to put into place a concrete work, a definition through projects, an action having the possibility of embodying a term which is tricky to discuss and often overused.
Eric Troussicot proposed to the guests to shed light on diversity by confronting it with other notions like identity (an occasion to question the French model and the concept of national identity); the idea of equality (which is not always systematically in agreement with actions taken in favor of diversity); or that of the transmission or memory of culture and values — which led naturally to the contribution of the poet, Gabriel Okoudji which followed.

Diversity had had its effect during this time of exchange at the Mobile Site: the points of view and experiences that were expounded upon went from political or legal conceptions of the different ideas presented, to life stories, by way of artistic expression, education projects or the most anecdotal everyday actions. Eric Troussicot punctuated the exchanges with quotes from Quand les murs tombent (Galaade editions, 2007) by Patrick Chamoiseau and Edouard Glissant, making homage in this way to the latter: “Creolization is a mixing of arts, or of languages, which produces the unexpected, a way of continually transforming a space, without getting lost, a space where dispersion allows us to unite, where shock and interference become creative.”

WORKSHOP: Reading of emotions by Gabriel Okoudji

The second station of the Mobile Site ended with a more intimate exchange around the work of Congolese poet, Gabriel “Mwènè” Okoudji (Prière aux ancêtres, Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire 2010, Stèles du point du jour is his latest collection). Through his poetry, he leads a daily combat against the loss of the foundations of African culture and sees himself above all as an interpreter endlessly seeking to insure the transmission of this culture. During the exchange, Gabriel Okoudji demonstrated his conviction that poetry was a sort of song – emotions put into motion – by reading some of his poems. He then turned toward his audience to propose a “weaving of stories” to them, an unprecedented, small, but essential gesture to make this moment of sharing last “one hour, one month or ten years.”

Station 3 of the “Chantier Mobile” will take place Tuesday, July 12 starting at 3:00 p.m. in the Cantefrêne park, close to the power station of Ambès on the theme: Industrial transition/Nature-industry/The future of the peninsula.

photos : Pierre Planchenault