Academic research
In October 2015, I started a PhD in theatre under the joint supervision of Prof. Sorin Crișan (University of Arts of Târgu-Mureș, Romania) and Prof. Catherine Mayaux (University of Cergy-Pontoise, France).
Subject: Studying the processes of creation and reception of the theatrical performance through the metaphor of the digestive system.
Summary: Since antiquity, the metaphor of digestion has been used to theorize about art and thinking. Our goal was to use it in order to study the contemporary theatrical phenomenon, especially as it appears on the French stage since the 2000s. In relationship to the psychoanalytical approach of the creative process by Didier Anzieu, we consider the processes of creation and reception of a theatrical performance as two different enactments of the same common process: the digestivo-poietic process. Through the articulation between the code and the « body » of the work, the interactions within and between stage and audience are configured, at an individual and a collective level, as a digestivo-poietic tract with several levels. After interpreting some of the major evolutions of the theatre since the end of the xixth century through the digestive metaphor, the study of particular performance works allows us to explore the metaphor of the vomiting (Bailey, Liddell, García), of the digestion (Bauchau, Orlin, Payen, Nguyên Thi, Régy) or of the excretion (Collectif Marthe, Artaud). In an approach related to semiotics, philosophy, psychoanalysis and the theatre studies, we namely define the concepts of irruption (semiotization outside of the work, in connection with the intimate archives of the artists), eruption (rejection of the work), rumination (semiotization in several steps, inside the work), evacuation (to put aside the signs that are useless for the writing of the spectacular text) and retention (to keep the useless signs). By approaching the poietic and the esthetics through the same digestivo-poietic process, we suggest interpreting the affinities of the artists and the spectators with the performance works from an organic point of view. Then, our reflection can be considered a way to foster a dietary approach to the theatre as far as poetics and ethics are concerned.
A 20 page summary is available in French here and in romanian here.
Conferences and publications
2018 : « La petite fille moche était barbu/e » (testimony as author and actor in Les contes de la petite fille moche). Published in European Drama and Performance Studies, n°10, « Masculinité et théâtre », Paris, Éditions Classiques Garnier, 2018, p. 313-322.
30/11, 1er et 02/12/2017 : Colloque « La nostalgie dans tous ses états » organized by Université de Lorraine in Nancy, France : « La nostalgie : attente d’un état, état d’une attente. » Publication to come.
06/2016 : Journée d’études « Langue et langues chez Henry Bauchau » organized bu Universitatea Petru Maior din Târgu-Mureș and by Universitatea de Arta din Târgu-Mureș, Romania : « Théâtre et roman chez Henry Bauchau : la langue et l’action ». Published in Revue internationale Henry Bauchau, n° 8, 2016/2017 : « La langue d’Henry Bauchau », 2018, p. 145-160.
05/2016 : Colloque international « Entre monologue et dialogue », by the team of the project « Monologuer : situations, formes et pratiques » in coll. with Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle, Université Paris Diderot and Université de Poitiers, France : « Monologue et dialogue : du vomissement à la digestion ». Publication to come.
12/2015 : Colloque international dans les Sciences du Théâtre, « Le théâtre : du secret à la confession », Universitatea de Arte din Târgu-Mureș, Romania : « Écrire vers là où on ne sait pas. » Published in Symbolon, vol. XVI, n°29, p. 43-50.
11/2015 : 7th International Conference of Doctoral Studies in Theatre Practice and Theory, « Current Challenges in Doctoral Theatre Research », DIFA JAMU, Brno, Czech Republic : « The theatrical creative process and the process of digestion : metaphor as a methodology to study the theatre of today ». Published in Kunderová, Radka (dir.), Current Challenges in Doctoral Theatre Research, Brno, JAMU, 2017, p. 69-76.
10/2015 : Conferinţa internaţională : Integrarea europeană între tradiţie şi modernitate. 6th edition, Universitatea Petru Maior din Târgu-Mureş, Romania : « Le processus de création théâtrale à l’image du système digestif : penser le théâtre d’aujourd’hui à travers une métaphore. » Published in this review, n°6, 2015.
“La faim du théâtre”
“What is a delicious show? Why can viewers find a show particularly indigestible? Do artists vomit what they can not digest? To be constipated, theatrically, what could that mean? Is it possible to speak about the theater using everyday words, those that relate to our meals and the good progress of our digestion?”
25th/11/2017 and 20th/01/2018 in Arcueil (Anis Gras, le lieu de l’autre, 94, F).
Open discussion around my subject of thesis, as part of my artistic residency at Anis Gras.
22nd/05/2019 in Bucharest (Villa Noël, RO)
Conference.