Nemesis

Basic information

Project Title

Nemesis

Full project title

Nemesis, a theatrical creation and cultural mediation project

Project Description

How do you build a sustainable lifestyle and transform the way we live ?

This is the question raised, via 5 teenagers’ journey, the theatrical NEMESIS project, written and promoted by Anna Jousselin.

Art, ecology, co-living, sustainable communities, inclusion and accessibility are at the heart of this itinerant and interactive project.

Project Region

Lyon, France

EU Programme or fund

Description of the project

Summary

NEMESIS is a theatrical and cultural mediation project created to introduce dialogue around the theme of sustainable development. The eco-poetical theme of the play communicates to the public the possibility of building a new relationship with the world. NEMESIS tells the story of how five teenagers decide to run away to the mountains, looking for an uninhabited place where they can create a new society. The group tries to develop an honest and wholesome relationship with the world by creating an alternative community. But is the creation of an idyllic place elsewhere possible ? Will they survive alone ? And by what basis is it possible to create a new lifestyle that works in harmony with nature ?

Through the story of innocent teenagers convinced that they can have an impact on the world, that they can make their own existence and their descendants’s one sustainable and meaningful, NEMESIS suggests engaging in dialogue with several ways to redefine our lifestyles. In order to do this, the idea is to offer to the spectators after each performance a debate around the following question : how would you build a sustainable lifestyle in a new place ? This aims to enable discussions and information on various themes such as building of natural habitat, means for the self-determination of a community, ways of eating, etc…

Those debates would be recorded in order to create podcasts, available online on the future website’s project. Those podcasts, translated into several European languages, would provide some kind of a record of visions on the issue of sustainability.

In the interests of inclusion, NEMESIS would take the shape of a traveling theatre in order to meet very different audiences, by performing in new places where marginalized spectators live such as mountain massifs or agricultural territories, and by always playing for free for those spectators.

By staging teenagers' quest for "a better life", NEMESIS offers a window on a new way of existence together

Key objectives for sustainability

NEMESIS redefines hierarchy between species and between spaces. In NEMESIS, the five young people bring about those transformations in a conscious way for redefining their relationship to the place they live is the very driving force of their journey. The city where they used to live was hindering the development of their existence. But they also change their way of life in a more unconscious way in that their relationship with species changes as soon as they enter virgin land.

Therefore, the triggering factor of the story in the play is the sustainability of society: teenagers leave the community where they live (the city, a place of pollution, not sustainable) in order to create an alternative society elsewhere. The topic of durability also causes the characters’ different twists and turns, as the latter must face such issues as health or longing to settle down. The final part’s stalemate of the play questions the very possibility of creating a sustainable world. It looks to debate with the public to consider concrete ways to organize a more sustainable lifestyle in an upsurge of optimism and desire to change our relationship to the world.

The aim of the NEMESIS project is therefore to provide concrete ecological solutions in rural territories looking for the creation of sustainable communities, such as Saint Martial village (Cévennes, France), where the first creative residency of the project is going to take place.

The show would be performed in alternative places of performance (fields, barns, historical places in the villages) in order to enable the public to develop a shared feeling of appropriation in the space through art, essential factor of social cohesion.

The cultural mediation and creation of a safe space to ask questions and debate (parts developed in the following section) will likely create a solidarity between the audience and actors of the project.

Key objectives for aesthetics and quality

The NEMESIS project is first of all designed as a play. Written in 2020 by Anna Jousselin, NEMESIS project leader, this text is directly relevant to contemporary concerns and tends to echo the intimate lives and personal experiences of the audience.

Therefore, the quality of the theatrical experience for the spectator is primordial. Beyond the writing, the aim of the directing of the play is to think about how to translate eco-poetical issues on stage.

In order to deliver a complete aesthetic experience, Anna Jousselin is building her creative process on a collective work and an immersive process (starting with the first artistic residency in the Cévennes mountains), taking constantly into account the experience of being a spectator. The NEMESIS project aims to reach out to new audiences, who are not used to such artistic forms, and Anna knows how amazing a first theatre encounter can be. That's why she focuses all her attention on offering the best possible quality to the audience of NEMESIS by, for instance, abolishing the « fourth wall » and considering the changing and ajustable nature of this particular play (for instance strolls or immersive show). We want the audience to be a real part of this play!

Key objectives for inclusion

Inclusion is at the heart of the NEMESIS project, in the composition of its team as in the publics it aims to affect.

The team is made up with students and young professionals across various disciplines: artists (drama, cinema, manual work), activists, researchers, architects / stage designers, sound and light engineers. The aim is to build a shared piece of work reflecting a diversity of perspectives and fields of action which converge toward the same cause: the fight for sustainable development.

The second phase of the project - the operating phase of the work, is about dedicating our efforts to a large scale diffusion, affordable for all. The big fundraising campaign led by our team is first motivated by the desire to meet a marginalized public. The project has to be performed in new places: outdoor and marginalized territories from cultural events, mountain massifs, agricultural territories, and also working-class areas. If we need a substantial budget, it’s because we want to make our production affordable for all through free tickets.

This wish for inclusion is part of a larger approach: the theatrical performance would be the kernel of a dialogue creation process. Thus, this creation is not only about an artistic event, but also about a real meeting between a team and spectators around eco-poetical questions, around the relationship with the world between the human being and other species, with the necessity for « living together in harmony » in a sustainable way. Designed as a call for ideas and solutions, this time for discussion around the play and its themes is motivated by the desire to hear new voices, still under-listened.

Finally, this wish for inclusion is going to stretch beyond the operational life of the show, and will remain after the tour thanks to a radiophonic creation whose innovative nature is detailed in the next section.

Innovative character

The innovative dimension of the NEMESIS project lies in the fact that technological innovation is going to be used in order to develop ecological ideas and to keep a sustainable trace of the show.

With NEMESIS, the will for crossed disciplines makes the theatrical event a driving force to bring meetings about and start discussions with all through discussions at the end of each performance. Those discussions would be recorded in order to:

Write a charter - admissible as a first step to a global change of society - which could bring about concrete proposals regarding civic commitment for sustainable development and green transition. This charter would support innovative ideas for the ecological cause.
Create a network by gathering common subjects, mentioned during different meetings, and make up a dialogue between voices which agree, contradict or qualify themselves.
Develop the project on a European scale and create connections between countries thanks to the translation in different European languages of the recordings and a possible European tour.
Promote the inclusive aspect of the project by broadcasting the recordings in the form of podcasts on the NEMESIS website, in order to extend more the significance of each person’s words and to multiply as much as possible the ears that will receive it.
The use of interactivity on digital platform could make discussions between the citizens a success. The use of the internet would be a way to leave a sustainable and virtual mark of this theatrical project, still an ephemeral and performing art.

Because we strongly believe to the necessity to reinvent a sustainable lifestyle, action seems vital to us. The NEMESIS project, both artistic and social, shapes its aim as a true action.