Ready-(re)made/Théâtre de l'Élysée, Lyon
Once, I got the permission from the directors to re-paint a black box-like theatre white. The theatre is intentionally left white for the following curated seasons. Several years later, I have heard that it is still white.
Pictures: Aurélie Pétrel
For the reopening of the repainted place, a twenty-four-hour recording of Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard (A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance) is broadcast during one week in the theatre. Guests are invited to enter the venue between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day. During the half-hour of the presence of the spectators only white noise is audible, except at 7:42 pm, in homage to John Cage’s 4'33 '' (1942), the word “rien” (nothing) from “RIEN (…) N’AURA EU LIEU (…) QUE LE LIEU” (nothing / will have taken place / but the place) is heard, testifying for the continuity of the broadcast of the recording of the poem. At the same time of hearing the word RIEN, a pixelated enlargement of a screenshot of the inscription of the word on the page of a reproduction of the poem online is projected in a corner of the theater, at the bottom of a white wall.
