Philippe geyres biography books
This project was a real human adventure with highlights and lowlights, laughter and crying, tenderness, happiness and misfortune
(September 2012, text by Henri Strik, edited by Peter Willemsen)
Recently I got hold of Charles Darwin (see review), the latest triple album recorded by the French progressive rock band XII Alfonso. After listening to this record it was obvious for me that I wanted to know more about both the album and the band. I realized that Charles Darwin isn't an album that was made in a couple of months. I curiously wanted to know how this album was brought about. Therefore I asked the brothers François (FC) and Philippe Claerhout (PC) to tell me everything there is to know about the album.
| François & Philippe Claerhout; Thierry Moreno & Stéphane Ducassé |
Would you please tell our readers a bit about the beginning of the band and why you called yourself XII Alfonso?
PC: XII Alfonso was created in 1988 by François and me and two friends Stephane Merlinand Laurent Sindicq. We started out with simple and funny songs and then changed to instrumental music. We released two self-produced tapes and an EP on CD. Finally we got signed with the Musea Records label in 1996 for our first album The Lost Frontier. The rest is history. The band's name refers to Mike Oldfield's single Don Alfonso (1974). The number XII is rather esoteric, but you have two clues in the booklet of our latest CD Charles Darwin. It has something to do with a car.Is that car you are referring to a Citroën 2CV?
PC: No, it refers to the Renault 12. There's a picture of that car on the centrefold of the booklet introducing the third CD. On Darwin's office there's also the manufacturer book of that car. In addition you can see Darwin listening to XII Alfonso because the albums The Lost Frontierand Underlie on his desk. He's drinking a bottle of wine called Alfonso. On the wall there's a picture of a dog of a friend of mine called DaWelfare
“I like to watch people, I like to think about everything I see:” These words by film-maker Frederick Wiseman’s are at the heart of this adaptation of Welfare (1973) by Julie Deliquet. A unique day in the life of the homeless, stateless, workers, single mothers and other destitute people who file into the makeshift welfare centre set up in the Cour d’honneur. For the duration of the performance, the Palais des papes becomes a place of hospitality struggling to take on a human face. This is the territory inhabited by the characters of this adaptation by the current director of the Centre dramatique national de Saint-Denis, whose theatre ceaselessly tries to capture life within the human comedy. Fifteen everyday heroes whose stories intertwine to show in stark relief the dysfunctions of our society. Characters who invite us to follow them and to step through the fourth wall the way one must see through a fantasy to find reality again.
Interview with Julie Deliquet
Distribution
With Julie André (Elaine Silver) Astrid Bayiha (Mrs Turner) Éric Charon (Larry Rivera) Salif Cisse (Jason Harris) Aleksandra de Cizancourt (Elzbieta Zimmerman) Évelyne Didi (Mrs Gaskin) Olivier Faliez (Noel Garcia) Vincent Garanger (Mr Cooper) Zakariya Gouram (Mr Hirsch) Nama Keita (Miss Gaskin) Mexianu Medenou (Lenny Fox) Marie Payen (Valerie Johnson) Agnès Ramy (Roz Bates) David Seigneur (Sam Ross) Hirsch) Nama Keita (Miss Gaskin) Mexianu Medenou (Lenny Fox) Marie Payen (Valerie Johnson) Agnès Ramy (Roz Bates) David Seigneur (Sam Ross) and Thibault Perriard (John Sullivan, musician) My main research interests are in the art and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world. My work is mainly directed at the historical interpretation of ancient visual representation and its relationship with contemporary social and political culture. In connection with my work at Aphrodisias I have a particular interest in the art and archaeology of the Greek cities of the Eastern Roman Empire. I have been engaged in the study and publication of the new marble finds from Aphrodisias since 1985. I had a British Academy/ Philip Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship in 2007-8 for aspects of this work, and with the historian Bryan Ward-Perkins was awarded an Art and Humanities Research Council grant for a project titled 'The Last Statues of Antiquity' (2009-2012) to investigate the distinctive character of statue use in late antiquity from AD 284 to 650: www.ocla.ox.ac.uk/statues. The results were published in a collaborative book, The Last Statues of Antiquity (eds. R.R.R. Smith and B. Ward-Perkins, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2016).
Based on the film by Frederick Wiseman
Translated by Marie-Pierre Duhamel Muller
Directed by Julie Deliquet
Scenographic adaptation by Julie André, Julie Deliquet, Florence Seyvos
Artistic collaboration by Anne Barbot, Pascale Fournier
Scenography by Julie Deliquet, Zoé Pautet
Lighting Vyara Stefanova
Music Thibault Perriard
Costumes Julie Scobeltzine
Puppet Carole Allem
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