François Sarhan: Les Murs meurent aussi

When the war Ukraine-Russia (invasion or special operation), i first thought that it’s important for me to be able to react, to testify. Not that artists have the power (and does it belong to art?) to change the world, but it’s also discouraging not to be able to connect to an event which is happening so close to us.

It soon appeared that confronting testimonies about this conflict was not possible: the situation was (and still is) too sensitive and raises endless debates.

 

I then rethought the central topic to open it to the more general question of: how do political or economical changes of frontiers affect our lives? Whether it is physical borders (walls, check points, mines) or political and symbolic (frontiers, passports) the violence is never far.

We then collected a set of REAL stories and events: the musicians of Lucilin told me some real stories of their personal lives or relatives; we found documents about a man in Siberia who walked for 3000 km towards Moscow with the intention of exorcizing Putin, we discovered that groups of self-called »witches« meet on a regular basis to accomplish rituals supposed to help the action of Putin, i found out (thanks to a lecture by Zizek) that the American army is deeply preoccupied by the soil pollution provoked by the bullets, therefore develops biodegradable ones, i found out that one can freely buy surveillance systems and weapons advertised on YouTube under the name of MUSIC, and much more that didn’t find place in the show.

All this is available to anyone who wishes to see it.

 

So Les murs meurent aussi EXCLUSIVELY presents real and existing devices and phenomenons, however not in the style of a documentary theater show, ie not necessarily in a realistic way.

This discrepancy might provoke doubt, or smile, but shouldn’t make us lose sight on the brutality they contain, and the number of deaths they imply.
(François Sarhan)