Dieudonné Niangouna & Pascal Contet
Nothing better describes Dieudonné Niangouna's writing than the name of the theatre company he founded in 1997 with his brother Criss: Les Bruits de la Rue (The Sounds of the Street). His literary work is nourished by the street, based on an explosive and devastating language, in the image of Congolese reality. To his fellow-citizens, as to all the spectators he meets far beyond the borders of Congo-Brazzaville, he offers a theatre of urgency, inspired by a country ravaged by years of civil wars and the aftermath of French colonisation. A theatre of immediacy, in a society in which you must resist to survive when you are an author and actor. A protean theatre that calls on the most classical French language as well as a popular and poetic language, enriched by that of the great Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi. Aware of the three-fold necessity for theatre language to be simultaneously written, spoken and heard, Dieudonné Niangouna uses images and formulas taken from his maternal and oral tongue, Lari, to invent an enriched and generous French, a "living language for the living" which was already heard in Avignon in 2007 when Dieudonné Niangouna made his incredible monologue, Attitude Clando, resonate in the night at the Jardin de la rue de Mons.
Pascal Contet got his first accordion when he was 10 years old from his parents who met his obsessive desire to play this instrument. Then began a rather unconventional itinerary that led him from international competitions to conservatories in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Denmark where he encountered contemporary music and its most prestigious representatives. He notably worked under the direction of Pierre Boulez and is a member of the Ars Nova and 2E2M ensembles. From Japan to New York, from Georgia to Poland, from Berlin to Coimbra, from Rome to Hanover, from Shanghai to Lisbon, he carries his accordion to the four corners of the world for premieres but also improvisations that he often shares with other instrumentalists, such as the bassist Joëlle Léandre and the percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet. Very quickly recognised for the creation of a new repertory for accordion, he has worked with many composers including Luciano Berio, Bernard Cavanna and Bruno Mantovani. Fascinated by unbeaten tracks, he has worked with choreographers and is interested in the works of the novelist Marie Nimier, before meeting the Congolese author Dieudonné Niangouna with whom he will share the stage to bring Flying Inanities to life.