{"id":460,"date":"2026-03-05T16:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/work\/autre\/opium-en\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:21:47","slug":"opium","status":"publish","type":"anne_project","link":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/en\/work\/artiste-choregraphique\/opium\/","title":{"rendered":"Opium"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“‘The people’ as unity, identity, totality or generality simply doesn’t exist… because in the end there are only coexisting peoples.”<\/span>
\n<\/span>(George Didi-Huberman “What is a people?”)<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fundamental and empty of meaning, this people imposed itself on us as a vain yet always sought-after unity.<\/span>We are choreographers, and for this project we brought together a team with different practices, because the subject calls for several entries. Opium<\/em> is conceived as a geography of the desert (cf Hannah Arendt “What is politics?”) and this desert is not sterile, it produces forms, words.<\/span>We therefore chose accumulation* as a figure of speech.<\/span>This sensation is the driving force behindOpium<\/em><\/span>. Associated with the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de N\u00eemes over the 2014\/2015 and 2015\/2016 seasons, we were then able to articulate this project in different stages. <\/span><\/p>\n

*Accumulation<\/span>: Materials of the same nature, of the same parentage, juxtaposed without any other link. Accumulation conveys an impression of disorder, chaos and overflow (it doesn’t allow for any progression or construction of meaning).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A photographic and journalistic approach
\n<\/b>First stage with reporter Julien Cernobori and photographers Anya Tikhomirova and Soraya Hocine, based on Hannah Arendt’s notions of Oasis and Desert<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“(…) The increasing loss of the world, the disappearance of the in-between.<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>This is the extension of the desert, and the desert is the world in whose conditions we move (…).<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>The danger is that we become true inhabitants of the desert and feel at home in it.”<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>What is politics? Hannah Arendt<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n<\/span> Thechallenge was to produce a primer of material (interviews and photos), a snapshot of these worlds, always halfway between aridity and strange remission.<\/span>
\n<\/span>We went to meet different worlds and different bodies: La Pension de famille Lumi\u00e8re et Vie (N\u00eemes), Quartier Libre (N\u00eemes), Coll\u00e8ge Condorcet (N\u00eemes), Centre Fran\u00e7ais de Tauromachie (N\u00eemes), L\u00e9gion Etrang\u00e8re (Aubagne), Centre Hospitalier Fran\u00e7ois Tosquelles (Saint Alban sur Limagnole), but also the plateaux of Loz\u00e8re, Paris, Rouen etc..<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Essays, provisional writings, exhibitions
\n<\/b>It was from these interviews and visuals that the writing developed, transposed<\/span>. Essays, provisional writings create intuitive links between these different materials and different contexts<\/p>\n

<\/span>The piece
\n<\/b>Think of the group as a fragment, a fraction, an accumulation.<\/span>We wanted the construction of this piece like a mobile. Each element of a mobile seems dissociated. The whole is articulated and only appears when these elements intersect before our eyes.<\/span>
\n<\/span>A dance, a song, a story, elements that remain dissociated like an accumulation* of behaviors, all held together by this strange consciousness between joyful casualness and legitimate violence.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The place of music
\n<\/b>Music plays a major role in our approach. In Opium, it puts two sides of the same coin into perspective: the corrosive power of Nina Simone’s revisited pieces find their rightful place against Hannah Arendt’s banality of the worst.<\/span>
\n<\/span>An ever-expanding sounding board,<\/span>it projects figures who, between threat and resignation, search for their paradigm.<\/span>An imperfect balance is at work. Opium<\/em> is a never-ending march, a hazy, constant smoke.<\/p>\n

Cr\u00e9dits<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Choreography<\/span>: Magali Milian and Romuald Luydlin<\/span>
\n<\/span>With the collaboration of : Laurent Benard, Benjamin Chaval, Sophie Lequenne, Val\u00e9rie Leroux, Romuald Luydlin, Corine Milian, Magali Milian, Manusound, Lucie Patarozzi, Denis Rateau, Marc Sens, Anna Vanneau<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Production
\n<\/strong>Producers : La Zampa<\/span>
\n<\/span>Coproduction : Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de N\u00eemes sc\u00e8ne conventionn\u00e9e pour la danse contemporaine, CDC Toulouse Midi-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es, Sc\u00e8nes Crois\u00e9es Sc\u00e8ne conventionn\u00e9e de Loz\u00e8re, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de L’Archipel Sc\u00e8ne nationale de Perpignan, CCNO Orl\u00e9ans Josef Nadj and ICI-CCN Montpellier Occitanie\/Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e directed by Christian Rizzo as part of the Accueil-studio program.<\/span>
\n<\/span>In residence: Le Toboggan-D\u00e9cines, Fabrik-Potsdam, Coll\u00e8ge Condorcet-N\u00eemes, Le ZO-N\u00eemes, Centre hospitalier Fran\u00e7ois Tosquelles-Saint Alban, L’Od\u00e9on-Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de N\u00eemes.<\/span>
\n<\/span>With support from: Adami, soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des artistes-interpr\u00e8tes and Institut Fran\u00e7ais (Bureau du Th\u00e9\u00e2tre et de la Danse – Berlin).<\/span>
\n<\/span>La Zampa is subsidized by the Direction R\u00e9gionale des Affaires Culturelles Occitanie \/ Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es-M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e, by the R\u00e9gion Occitanie \/ Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es-M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e and by the D\u00e9partement du Gard.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“‘The people’ as unity, identity, totality or generality simply doesn’t exist… because in the end there are only coexisting peoples.” (George Didi-Huberman “What is a people?”) Fundamental and empty of meaning, this people imposed itself on us as a vain yet always sought-after unity.We are choreographers, and for this project we brought together a team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":383,"menu_order":0,"template":"","anne_project_cat":[3],"class_list":["post-460","anne_project","type-anne_project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","anne_project_cat-artiste-choregraphique","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anne_project\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anne_project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/anne_project"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"anne_project_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annavanneau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anne_project_cat?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}