All 3 contemporary French shows derive from a common thought – strict negation of theater means such as role-playing, illusion making in favor of demonstrating the process of creation. This a a theater without personages, without narration, anty-mimetic. Actors don’t play but are themselves on stage. What they stage is rather their situation, their condition, or their identity being analyzed. Jérôme Bel was working long time ago as a choreography assistant for an opening of Olympic games in Albertville and that he made a 180 turn, now practicing only talking about dance: dance-performance-conferences. Bel observing Pichet Klunchun’s and his-own cultural background is asking what are the culture norms, identities, virtuosity or exotics. Grand Magasin is constantly fulfilling its aim: create, together with the public, a good, joyful, touching and intelligent performance without a slight knowledge of theater, dance, music and their techniques. Kind of peformance that Grand Magasin wanted always to see for themselves.
All those 3 shows form Paris can be called a conceptual theater where the critical idea and the process of creation are being staged.