Gracias a la vida

In partnership with La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec, the company Fictions collectives is inviting the inhabitants of the Petit Noisy/La Sablière district to create a collective performance that showcases a song that has affected their life. 

Twenty years ago, director and author Marie Mortier sang Vileta Parra’s song Gracias a la vida while wearing a television. On the screen, she was seen explaining what the song meant to her, mixing two voices: thought and song. In 2022, at the age of forty, she decided to repeat the performance with the same images, now digitised, this time accompanied by people from Noisy-le-Sec.   

Workshops: from February to March, 2022

Through vocal and theatrical exercises, participants search for their song and how to sing it. At the same time, a video is shot, in which each person explain how the song makes them feel. The workshops are led by Julien Meunier (director and documentary filmmaker) and Sarah Rees (actor and director). 

Performance creation: 8 and 9 April, 2022

Presentation: 10 April, 2022, 2:30pm and 5pm

After rehearsing for two days, the participants will create a collective performance mixing video narratives and performing songs. The performance will be hosted at La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec on 10 April 2022, as a preamble to the exhibition of outdoor projects and workshops “Épatez La Galerie !”.

• Conception: Marie Mortier
• Artistic direction and staging: Sarah Rees
• Direction: Julien Meunier
• Production: Elise Dammarez

Project supported by ICF Habitat, the Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires, DRAC Île-de-France — Ministère de la Culture, the Seine-Saint-Denis Departement and la Communauté d’agglomération Est Ensemble, as part of the Seine-Saint Denis’s solidarity and ecological revitalisation plan.