E pour eux

Based on Gilles Deleuze’s alphabet pattern, “E pour eux” gives a different image of Montpellier’s suburbs by witnessing danse and language workshops with a group of young men.

15 young people aged 16 to 22 committed to a project that began in January 1998, with a programme structured around contemporary art. These first meetings supplied initial answers to the questions that these young people were asking: why are these artists interested in us? Of what use will contemporary dance, the plastic arts and architecture be to us? How will this benefit us?

The work carried out in these first few months was to open doors, allow them to discover contemporary art through exhibitions, visits to buildings, dance performances, workshops… In the words of Djamel Boumaaz, the coordinator: “…These new elements enabled young people to see something other than their hip hop culture or the walls of their neighbourhood, another universe, a universe that for them was “inaccessible”, a universe they call “high society”, and yet these young people are extremely interested in this movement, in this new world that they are unaccustomed to…” 

The meetings continued through to July. Some young people gave up along the way. The last workshop took place in the Studio Bagouet of the choreographic centre (CCN). It was during these periods of work that the actual material of the film was elaborated, namely an exploration of their vocabulary, words and language, an imaginary world reconstructed from words.

26 letters.

Among them, one letter has been lost. Who is it addressed to? Where does it come from? The enigma of a letter from a foreign country, for a foreign destination. 25 image words, question words, story words, short and collected words or long gestures.

Tell your story through a letter. Tell the word.

25 short stories parade, interweave, overlap, are danced, are replayed, through this ABC show. 

The aim is to claim a letter, to appropriate it, that of its last name, its first name, its world.