Denis Guénoun
Doctor in philosophy, professor, poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, actor, director; for a long time Denis Guénoun considered those activities connected but distinct. Three creations by his company, L'Attroupement, played at the Festival d'Avignon in 1981, including his directions of Eugène Labiche's Chapeau de paille d'Italie (The Italian Straw Hat) and Patrick le Mauff's Temps de guerre, Temps de paix (Time of War, Time of Peace). In 1990, Denis Guénoun did not renew his mandate as director of the Centre Dramatique National de Reims, and instead dedicated himself to academia and research in the fields of philosophy and theatre. Those two disciplines have become inextricably linked recently as, having come back to the theatre with his company Artépo, he aims to give a voice to ethical and political philosophy on the stage. In charge of the “Expériences philosophiques” (“Philosophical Experiences”) collection for the publisher Solitaires Intempestifs, author of the essay Hypothèses sur l'Europe (About Europe: Philosophical Hypotheses) and of the memoir Un sémite (A Semite), Denis Guénoun now understands the multiplicity of his modes of thinking and of expression as a resource to replace theatre in a larger worldview.
MC, April 2014
