Encyclopedia of Speech, Suite No. 1 „ABC“ for 11 perform-ers and 11 guests

L’Encyclopédie de la parole is an artistic project exploring the spoken word in all its forms.  Since  2007,  this  group of musicians, poets, directors, visual artists, actors, sociolinguists, and curators,  has  been  collecting  all  sorts of recordings of words and then indexing them on its website, www.encyclopediedelaparole.org, according to their particular properties or phenomena such as cadence, chorality, emphasis, saturation or melody.

What do the following have in common? The poetry of Marinetti, the dialogues of Louis de Funès, a horse racing commentary, a lecture by Jacques Lacan, an excerpt from South Park, the flow of Eminem and Lil Wayne, a message left on an answering machine, Julien Lepers’ questions, an Adventist sermon, The Young and the restless dubbed in French, a speech by Léon Blum or Bill Clinton, an auction, a shamanic  incantation, Sarah  Bernhardt’s  declamations, a defence speech by Jacques Vergès, an advert for shampoo, conversations recorded in the local café...

From this collection of what is now close to 800 sound document, which now includes about 800 sound documents, L’Encyclopédie de la parole produces sound pieces, performances and shows, lectures, games and exhibitions. Currently in 2013, the Encyclopédie de la parole has brought together Frédéric Danos, Emmanuelle Lafon, Nicolas Rollet, Joris Lacoste, Grégory Castéra, David Christoffel, Valérie Louys and Elise Simonet.

from the documents of the project

Parliament (2009) was the first staging of the project Encyclopaedia of Speech. The authors used one voice for the interpretation of the collected material. Suite № 1 multiplies the number of cast. The viewer can see a 22-member choir on the stage. This “choir” interprets 40 recordings from the sound collection  of  the  Encyclopédie  remains from different world languages are just fragments, while it is up to the language ability of each spectator to what extent he perceives the Suite as speech set to music while keeping the meanings of the words or only a concert of the human voice. Different languages have a different share in the show. The choir repeatedly comes back to some of them, others are used just once. The result is a kind of Babylonian Tower or a melting pot reminding us of everyday situations at airports, in international companies and at international cultural or sporting events. The author of the staging always accommodates the show to local conditions and, therefore, the “Nitra version” will include the Slovak language and half of the cast will be made up of Slovak “guests” Nicolas Rollet, conductor, has selected and worked with.

Suite № 1 (opening night at Kunstenfestivaldesarts Bruxelles, May 2013) is the first part of the Choral Suites Series and will have further continuations. Within the project Encyclopaedia of Speech, the suites are an independent series. Suite № 2 for 7 performers, Suite № 3 for 10 performers and piano and Suite № 4 for 16 performers and orchestra will gradually be introduced in the year 2015 and in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons.
Miro Zwiefelhofer

design and archive collection: Frédéric Danos, Joris Lacoste, Emmanuelle Lafon, Nicolas Rollet
composed & directed by Joris Lacoste
conductor: Nicolas Rollet
direction assistant: Elise Simonet
consultants: Grégory Castéra & David Christoffel
cosumes: Nathalie Lermytte
lighting: Koen De Saeger & Florian Leduc
stage manager: Florian Leduc
production, management & administration: Frédérique Payn & Marc Pérennès
invited archive collectorsv: Constantin Alexandrakis, Annie Dorsen, Grégory Castéra, Myriam Van Imschoot, Valérie Louys, Loreto Troncoso Martinez, Olivier Normand, Sabine Macher, Berno Odo Polzer, Tomoko Miyata, Elise Simonet, Seyma Aouij
cast: Emmanuelle Lafon, Marine Sylf, Nuno Lucas, Barbara Matijevic, Olivier Normand and 11 guests: Linda Dóczyová, Katarzyna Dudzic - Grabińska, Patrik Földeši, Adam Herich, Filip Hlinka, Beáta Mészárosová, Adrián Nagy, Eva Novotná, Kristína Prablesková, Jakub Spišák, Simona Vrabcová
production: Échelle 1:1 (company supported by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication/DRAC Île-de-France)

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