Practical sessions
For the fourth semester of the Académie vivante (Living Academy) program, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research has invited the research and creation program directed by Julie Ramage (Paris Diderot University) to take place in Bétonsalon’s spaces from September 2017.
This program brings together around 30 students in two working groups at two sites. One is present on the campus of the Paris Diderot University, while the other is made up of students who are incarcerated at the Poissy prison (Maison centrale de Poissy). The two groups are brought together to collaborate from a distance on the realization of a research process and an artistic project resulting in the production of a publication launched at Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research at the end of the program.
The 2017-2018 term focuses on archaeology, a discipline exploring the border between the fields of scientific study and creative possibilities.
In archaeology we see current research questioning the relation between archaeologists and their object of study. In Theatre/Archaeology, Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks question the need for archaeologists to clean up decomposing artefacts; they put forward the hypothesis of a fear of the mortality of the body that archaeologists would face when encountering these objects. The project asks these questions in the context of prisons, which are, since the 19th century, thought of in terms of "contamination", "vice", diseases, and "rebellion".
The starting point of the project is to identify objects which for the participants signify "sick/ness“. By asking how these objects are embedded in certain narrative settings, by reproducing them by using techniques of representation deployed in archaeological practice (such as molding or photogrammetry) and studying them in a laboratory, in short, by mixing scientific analysis with the process of creation and narration, we create a space of discourse in which a metaphorical account of the living conditions of incarcerated bodies can emerge.
The Académie vivante (Living Academy) program is supported by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
The research and creation program is supported by Paris Diderot University, Section des Etudiants Empêchés, Ateliers Lettres de l’UFR Lettres, Arts, Cinéma, SAPIENS-USPC, INRAP Centre, and Maison centrale de Poissy.
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