the theatre of questions | Chaumont 2oo2

Starting from the third part of the Chaumont residency, “calls for questions” were displayed, questions wrapping steaks and croissants, beer-mats absorbing “blows” to arouse an interrogative thirst in the city. These calls were inspired by the Dadaist “theatre of questions” of Jacques Rebotier. Writing and graphic workshops collected from inhabitants more than 6oo questions, and constructed the topological map of their societal, philosophical, existential and oddball questions… 2oo of them were presented in the public place, three months prior to the festival. In the end, as it unfolded in May 2oo2, various installations punctuated the whole city (in conjugated forms of images, signs, movements, dances, videos, musics and lights). Questions thrived on posters, on “lollipops”, and on road signs, asking :“How’s things ?” A performance-cum-spectacle — by and with Jacques Rebotier — took over the ruins of the old theatre, and prompters took up the slack, busying around the wall with questions, in the middle of Chaumont. The “theatre of questions", in the end of the day, was an occasion to broaden the graphic performance of Agrafmobile to a visual theatre where the city was a 36o° stage.