Curated by Villa Gillet (Director: Guy Walter), and supported by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Walls and Bridges is a 10-day series of performances and critical explorations uniting French and American thinkers and artists from social sciences, philosophy, literature and live arts. This year, at the Invisible Dog Art Center, Walls and Bridges presents two programs:
Please Mind the Door
Saturday, October 19 at 7:30pm
Doors always imply the existence of an “outside,” of what’s “beyond the door,” says French ethnologist Pascal Dibie. Everything is then left to the imagination: inside, outside, open, closed, danger, safety…
The nature of doors—part wall, part bridge—is the theme of a night of storytelling, music, and performance. Together with Pascal Dibie, a surprising line-up of guests—a geographer, a beatboxer, a historian, a sociologist, a feminist philosopher, but also actors, musicians, singers and other performing artists—will present stories about this common object, and its symbolic place in our world and imagination.
Featuring: Romain Bertrand (Historian / FR), Pascal Dibie (Ethnologist / FR), Bridget Everett (Singer And Cabaret Performer / Us), Michel Lussault (Geographer / FR), Dave Malloy (Composer / USA), Scott Matthew (Singer / AS- Us), Jonathan Metzl (Writer, Sociologist And Psychiatrist / Us), Jeanne Mordoj (Circus Performer / FR), Beatriz Preciado (Philosopher / SP-FR), Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan (Comedian And Beatboxer / USA), Oh! Oui… (Theater Company / FR, with Joachim Latarjet and Alexandra Fleischer)
Set design by Gareth Long
Reservations: pleasemindthedoor@villagillet.net
Foreign Language Hopscotch
Sunday, October 20 at 2-5pm
How often do we take advantage of all the incredible lingual diversity at our ear-tips? Join us for an active-language listening party, as we hear and explore languages from across the five boroughs and around the world. About 15 New Yorkers will each offer free, 30 minute classes on their native tongue and culture, including Chinese, Spanish, Creole, Yiddish, Polish, Finnish, French, Icelandic, Inuit and many more. Participants will have the opportunity to take up to 6-speed language courses.
Reservations: hopscotch@villagillet.net
Stille Nacht, a live musical by the French theater troop Oh! Oui…
Sunday, October 20 at 6.30pm
In April 2007, René Fleischer asked his grand-daughter Alexandra Fleisher and her partner Joachim Latarjet to go to Sambin, a small village in north-central France. Though René was born in 1935, he’d always said his childhood had begun in 1940, in Sambin. His Jewish and German parents sent him there. For five years, he didn’t see them and lived with a woman who took care of him. One day during his stay, he heard a German soldier in the streets… That day was to be the last time he ever spoke a word of his mother tongue.” “It’s a child’s story. The story of a child. He has a secret and must silence it. He has to hide, to faint, to fade… to disappear for a while… It’s also a search for hiding places… for the answer to the question: why did the German language disappear from the Fleischer family?”
Featuring: Oh! Oui… (Theater Company / FR) with Alexandra Fleischer (Actress and singer / FR), Joachim Latarjet (Musician and theater director / FR), Alexandre Théry (Dancer / FR). Technical direction and lights: Léandre Garcia Lamolla; Sound: Samuel Pajand; Video: Mathilde Bertrandy.
Reservations: stillenacht@villagillet.net
Dates + Times
Saturday, October 19 at 7:30pm
Sunday, October 20 at 2-5pm + 6:30pm
Admissions
Free
Reservations Required
Location
The Main Gallery
51 Bergen St.