With the Judicial Youth Protection

In the autumn, some young people from the Alpes-Vaucluse and Alpes-Maritimes youth justice services settle in at La FabricA of the Festival d'Avignon for a total immersion experience, enjoying the same conditions as a professional artists’ residency. They work on a theme chosen by the youth justice services. 

These young people, along with their youth workers, are supported by members of the Primesautier Théâtre company (Julie Minck, Antoine Wellens, Virgile Simon) and a technical team from the Avignon Festival. It is a week that combines writing sessions, theatre practice and an introduction to technical theatre roles.

At the same time, discussion forums are organised to allow everyone to share their views, feelings and thoughts, drawing on the insights and experience of professionals and guest speakers, with a view to deepening their understanding and discussing the themes of their production. 

The week concludes with a performance for a selected audience, followed by a discussion with the audience.

This year, young people and teams from the Alpes-Vaucluse and Alpes-Maritimes youth justice services are tackling the issue of our relationship with artificial intelligence.

What if, overnight, everything came to a halt? A global glitch plunges the planet into darkness: screens go blank, networks disappear, and artificial intelligence suddenly falls silent. Cut off from the world, a group of strangers find refuge in an old theatre where, as the night drags on, one thing becomes essential: to talk. About what we have built, what we have entrusted to machines, what AI brings us and what it might take away from us. Amidst fascination, mistrust, hope and fear, certainties waver. Deprived of light and connection, they may discover what truly matters: when the machines fall silent, what remains are human beings, their stories and their ability to engage in dialogue. ‘Traverser la nuit’ is a collective journey between darkness and light, offering a fresh perspective on what we have created.

The young people and the supervisory team will be immersed in an artistic residency from 18 to 23 October at La FabricA, part of the Avignon Festival. This week of rehearsals will be enriched by the presence of Redouane Dich, deputy director of educational programmes at the South-East Interregional Directorate for Judicial Youth Protection, and Sarah Priarone, digital educational engineer at the Training Department of the National School for Judicial Youth Protection.

This year, young people and teams from the youth justice services in Alpes-Vaucluse, Alpes-Maritimes and French Guiana are tackling the issue of slavery in the broadest sense of the term. The past, present and future will be examined in order to determine what might drive humankind to commit such atrocities and to exercise boundless control over both bodies and minds.

On stage, they are compiling a comprehensive catalogue of the various forms of slavery and endeavouring to portray them in a powerful and poetic manner, in the hope that such atrocities will never be repeated. We shall therefore face up to the past, examine the present and look to the future with hope. We shall then see what we are made of and try to look beyond the end of our noses, for as the saying goes: ‘He who has seen, shall see!’

And to see clearly with their hearts, the young people and the support team immersed themselves in an artistic residency from 19 to 24 October at La FabricA at the Festival d'Avignon. This week of rehearsals will be enriched by the presence of visual artist Martin Marquès Dos Santos, as well as by discussions with experts from the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery.

Participants from the judicial protection of young people experience a creative process, accompanied by three artists from the Primesautier Théâtre company at La FabricA.

The conditions of the residency are identical to those in professional working conditions, to create a space where young people's voices can be heard and valued. This year, young people and professionals from the Alpes-Vaucluse, Alpes-Maritimes and Gard-Lozère youth protection services are taking an interest in a major event that will lead them to dissect and deconstruct the Olympic Games. How and why did this great organised jubilation make us vibrate with joy or anger? How and why does it impact on our lives and our environment? The values of sport, sport as a political tool, sport as spectacle, sport vs physical activity... These notions are taken in hand and put back into play in a strange theatrical and sporting ceremony. Echoing the exhibition History, Sport & Citizenship from the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024, the young people and their support team will be immersed in the subject from 20 to 25 October at La FabricA at the Avignon Festival. Enriched by exchanges with experts (top sportsmen and women, historians, journalists), these everyday athletes offer us their views as citizens during these ‘Olympics of argument’ to check whether every medal has its reverse side.

With the support of the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles de la Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Préfecture de Vaucluse as part of its urban policy and the Mission de veille et d'information.

With the support of Marie-Hélène Orthous, university professor, Névil Gagnepain, journalist, Sonia Pallin, world karate champion and director of the PJJ Sud-Est, CASDEN, the restaurant Graines de Piment and the association VOLT par l'image et le son.

For a week, several young people under the care of the Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (PJJ) Alpes-Vaucluse, along with their educators and psychologists, will be working with Julie Minck, Antoine Wellens and Virgile Simon, performers and directors from the Primesautier Théâtre company. Based on the comic strip La Fantaisie des dieux, Rwanda 1994 by Hippolyte and Patrick de Saint Exupéry, they are staging a play combining documentation and fiction. Through the eyes of Patrick de Saint Exupéry, a journalist, and discussions with Kala Neza, a witness to the genocide, and Lionel Boulat, head of priority public partnerships at the Camp des Milles. A unique experience of life and creation. A week in professional conditions, conducive to the development of the word, at the FabricA of the Festival d'Avignon, where everyone living here was able to work and live. A project of the Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse Alpes-Vaucluse and the Festival d'Avignon with the Primesautier Théâtre.

With the support of the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles de la Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Préfecture de Vaucluse as part of its urban policy and the Mission de veille et d'information.

With the support of Patrick de Saint Exupéry, Kala Neza, Lionel Boulat from Camp des milles and the VOLT association through image and sound.

With thanks to Éditions Les Arènes.

Young people from Avignon, Carpentras and Orange took part in the work based on the comic book L'Odyssée d'Hakim by Fabien Toulmé © éditions Delcourt, which they all directed. A play between documentation and fiction on the theme of exile. They benefited from the experience of photojournalist Louis Witter, who has documented the evacuation of migrant camps near Calais. 

A professional videographer from the association VOLT L'image par le son made a documentary on this week and creation which was screened after the performance.

With the support of the Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles de la Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Préfecture de Vaucluse in the framework of the Politique de la Ville and the Mission nationale de veille et d'information

Young people from Avignon, Montfavet and Carpentras took part in a project based on Robert Badinter's fight and its adaptation into a comic strip L'abolition, le combat de Robert Badinter (NE), by Marie Bardiaux-Vaïente and Malo Kerfriden © Editions Glénat, 2021.

With the Primesautier Théâtre company, they tackled the subject of the death penalty and immersed themselves in history. They discovered the thoughts of Victor Hugo and Albert Camus, without whom, as Robert Badinter wrote: "this fight would not have had the same emotional strength or the same moral intensity".

With the support of the Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles de la Région Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Préfecture de Vaucluse in the framework of the City Policy and the Mission de veille et d'information. With the support of Ceméa, Amnesty International and Canopé Thanks to Glénat Éditions, Editions Gallimard and the Camus estate