Please join our next BioCriticism webinar, on the 10th of March, to discuss biology in contemporary theatre. Theatre director Frédérique Aït-Touati (CNRS) will present her work on the Terrestrial Trilogy, which can be viewed online. Her respondent will be Anna Street (Le Mans University).
BioCriticism – 10th March 2023 – 2 pm CET
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82317272444?pwd=NDBkbVBnNmFiUTIwdUVMQjNEQ3JJUT09
Meeting ID: 823 1727 2444
Passcode: 685742
Theatre director Frédérique Aït-Touati (CNRS) will discuss the role of biology in her Trilogie Terrestre (Inside, Moving Earths and Viral), created in collaboration with Bruno Latour. Her respondent will be Anna Street (Université du Mans).
The « terrestrial trilogy » started in 2016 with the INSIDE performance conference, followed in 2019 by Moving Earths and in 2020 by Viral. The whole project is a reflection on the need for a profound renewal of our representations of the terrestrial world, biotic and abiotic. INSIDE explored visual alternatives to the haunting and deceptive image of the “Globe”; Moving Earths immersed us in the experience of a moving, reactive earth; VIRAL is an exploration of contagion as an essential process of our closed world, and the political consequences of this expanded definition of life. The three lectureperformances are the result of a singular process of creation and long term research developed at the Théâtre Nanterre Amandiers, where the philosopher Bruno Latour and the director Frédérique Aït-Touati make the stage a place for “scenic essays” and philosophical experimentation. Recordings can be viewed in English or French online: https://www.zonecritiquecie.org/captations.
Frédérique Aït-Touati is a historian of science and literature, a theatre director, and a CNRS Research Fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her work explores connections between the sciences and the arts. Her books include Fictions of the Cosmos (2011), Histoires et savoirs (2012), Le Monde en images (2015), Terra Forma, manuel de cartographies potentielles (B42, 2019 / MIT Press, 2021), Le Cri de Gaïa (2021), Trilogie Terrestre (2022).She is the director of the Experimental Programme in Political Arts (SPEAP) at Sciences Po. With Bruno Latour and her theatre company Zone Critique she has created plays and performances, including Gaia Global Circus (2013-2016), Make it Work/The Theatre of Negotiations (2015), INSIDE (2016-2018), Moving Earths (2019-2020) and VIRAL (2021).
Anna Street is Lecturer in Theater and Performance Studies at Le Mans Université. Translator of ten volumes in Les Petits Platons collection, her publications also include the co-edited volumes Inter Views in Performance Philosophy (Palgrave 2017), Genre Transgressions: Dialogues on Tragedy and Comedy (Routledge forthcoming), articles on comedy and philosophy and, more recently, immigrant and refugee theatre. Her current research focuses on the role of non-human agency in art and performance, notably that of water.