Project based on Boris Vian's text "The empire Builders"
June 2023
This scenography is based on the principle of a place located in an indeterminate mental space. Everything outside the room is a threatening unknown that, as the acts progress, dangerously approaches, closing in on the father, alone in his delirium. As the space confines itself, it becomes increasingly colorful, with fewer and fewer characters. We then realize the father’s solitude in reality. Like the photos of the Algerian War, in black and white and low quality, which create a distance from the reality of war crimes, the first scene is distant and unreal. While the high-definition, colored images of the war in Ukraine seem more ‘real’ to us and impact us more, the color evolution of the scenography leading to the father’s universe brings us back to a reality, close and violent.
Inspiration, Zenobia the Existentialist Flower
In the absurd and existentialism, authors shed light on the limits of reason and logic in understanding reality and existence. They explore alternative approaches to understanding the world around them, particularly through the absurd and laughter. For me, Zenobia is associated with this more subtle form of knowledge than pure reason (which can also be instinct, empathy, or human emotion). She is capable of seeing the schmurz. It represents a force that eludes logic and rationality; the characters hit it in an unpredictable manner, and their behavior does not follow logic. It is like a manifestation of the unconscious that disrupts the established order and questions the values of society. Therefore, it represents the absurd and irrational forces that govern life and existence, the denial and trauma of the Algerian War that the family, especially the father, faces. Cruche refuses to participate further in this denial, and Zenobia sees it because she sees beyond rational limits. She sees with feelings, empathy; she did not experience the trauma of the war. On the contrary, the other characters do not see it or cannot accept it. Zenobia is thus a representation of the absurd artist who sees beyond rationality and proposes through her means to see beyond the traumas of war.
Images of the project
Photo of model, scene 1 of the play
Photo of model, scene 2 of the play
Photo of model, scene 3 of the play
technical drawing, SketchUp rendering of scene 1
technical drawing, SketchUp rendering of scene 3
technical drawing, SketchUp face rendering of scene 1
technical drawing, SketchUp face rendering of scene 2
