Art for Earth's Sake

Six cultural institutions created Thin Ice and want to suggest solutions to climate change with the help of artists. Do you think that this sort of positioning is possible?

Yes, and perhaps more than a positioning of the artists themselves. Putting together the proposals of different artists, thinking about the role of creation today, about the way in which to create now, mixing together artists working in different fields, different art forms, could allow the cultural institutions to think about tomorrow’s world and to invent directions and proposals. But I won’t say that the artists have to relinquish that. Artists can very easily be at the core of such reflections.

The Thin Ice call for projects to which I responded fitted into something that I wanted to do. I did not feel trapped by it in any way. Quite to the contrary, it allowed me to trigger something that I had already thought of creating. It was not an order. It can resemble the way in which today’s attention to climate change is felt: whether in a framework of international negotiations or at the level of the individual, you can reduce your impact if you want to. Nothing needs to be experienced as an order from the outside.

Is there such a thing as ecological theatre?

I’m very mindful of recycling and other stuff, but I don’t think that Kyoto Forever is a green play per se. Although the theme and the content refer to climate, the way in which I devised the play is not ecological. What is a green show anyway? Perhaps it is a show whose ecological footprint is known and can eventually be reduced. This is not something I did for Kyoto Forever, but it’s something that I would attempt to do for further projects. I would like to try and measure the carbon footprint of a new show. But let’s not discard theatre because it emits too much carbon dioxide…

Do you suppose that the show will be played abroad?

If I had to play in Canada or in the United States, we could eventually calculate what is more beneficial for the planet. Should I get the entire cast of actors on a plane or should I arrive a month early and work with American actors to recreate the show? What is most rewarding from an ecological point of view?

Since your company Vertical Détour was founded in 2001, it’s been housed in a psychiatric hospital in Ville-Evrard. How do you manage to work there?

Two hospital patients participated in my last shows, with the exception of Kyoto Forever, which, from the start, had been thought of as a show that had to go outside the hospital walls. It’s the first time since I arrived there that I did not create a show specifically for that place and for the building in which we work.

The participation of patients does not pose a problem as long as the shows are played in VilleEvrard alone. Difficulties arise from the moment we try to come out of the hospital, particularly with regards to the care given to patients and their accompaniment. If this were not the case, I would have done it for Kyoto Forever, as some of the hospital’s patients participate in the company’s work on a regular basis and feed my theatrical desires. I have tried to make the VilleEvrard psychiatric hospital a permanent place for theatrical creation. I want people to come 39