VALENTINA

​Day 5
Morning session
L read us her work and told us about the gouna - the in between place - from F's perspective. Avec mon pigeon, on est montés sur le toit pour voler loin, parce qu'on voulait aimer notre pays en le regardant de loin. Rupture entre nous et le pays. Je vais voler votre rêve. Entre les deux. Entre la mort et la vie, entre içi et la bas. Aller à la police pour signer des choses que tu n'as pas fait. Je continue à faire tout cela mais ne vis pas.
Then began working on "digesting" yesterday's visit to the Bardo through theatre. Chair of memory: rush to it with an eagerness to tell others about yesterday's experience, when hands clap switch person on seat, fight to get to the chair and tell us about yesterday. Then one by one 2 minutes each to tell us about "J'ai vu...". Stick to what you have seen, no interpretation. Go into detail, dig out those details. Then in a group create three images from "J'ai vu..." sentences. The images were named by the group la visite - le nettoyage - l'interview.
Then choose a character from a mosaic or a statue from the museum. Try to find its shape, what material it is made of, what "attitude" it carried. Then bring it to life. What does it do when the sun goes down and the museum shuts. A mixture of Toy Story and Night at the Museum. How do these ancient characters come to life. How do they talk and what about? And what do they see. What did they see that day. Les statues et mosaïques comme témoins.

At the end of session asked everyone to type up their 3 minutes of automatic writing related to this exercise:
1. "J'ai vu..." sentences related to visit of the museum
2. "J'ai vu..." sentences related to the photos
3. "Elle/il m'a racconté que..."
4. Free writing sur l'expérience, les ressentis
5. Liste des mosaïques et statues avec personnages/scènes intéressantes

Avant de partir pour aller manger, recorded each other in pairs for maximum 5 minutes about memories related to a big violent event that happened during our lifetimes, what are our memories of learning about it, where were we when it happened, what were our gut reactions. Material to use tomorrow for verbatim work. Keeping on digging into personal memories and lived experiences and how they relate to the bigger political reactions to terror and use of fear.

Afternoon session
Walk in the medina lead by W. Junun are in all houses. Majnoon, mahboul, makhboul. Hammams also full of scary stories, among the haze and scrubbing. The hammam of gold - hair of young girl sticking out of floor that swallowed her, forever hiding its treasure. The killer ruler Romdan Bey written down in history as "just an angry man". Fear of walking by his palace. Sabbat al arusa: while in the tunnel the bride disappeared. Stolen by a jinn? By her lover? Raped before the wedding? Tunnel was closed off because men used to go drink alcohol there, it was not safe for anyone. But when W was young he used to run through it, even if he had fought with his friends if they were to pass by the tunnel they would hold hands and run through it together, their fear of it stronger than the fight that divided them. All are projecting personal fear onto story, can be told in a thousand ways. Walking by a man who shouted after W: you do all these tours of the medina but we get nothing! Mele cotogne in berber cus cus. Blue eyed great grandma turned grey eyed in old age - the matriarch sage femme head of the clan, fear and respected by all descendants but W. The saint of the cemetery who could manifest himself as a child or as an old woman. The derwish used to go meditate to death in his mausoleum. Whispering his name when decided to stop wearing the veil, to keep people's comments at bay and giving yourself strength, to stop being afraid and going out there bold, remember to whisper his name over and over under your breath. Another mausoleum in the centre of town, a window with una grata pitturata di blu where people throw coins in, the sidi was believed to have dissolved spells.