« To me, the Paris Opera was like the Amazon, a completely different civilization ! I went there as an ethnologist would go to meet indigenous peoples ». In fact, its Ballet is much more a subject for sociological enquiries than for dance. Buren would have called it an "in situ" work. Jerome Bel, very simply, « a documentary ». It is the emotional and overwhelming intelligence of a performance in which Jerome Bel uses dance as a sociological-critical tool. The performance has her own name : Veronique Doisneau. She is the subject, so she speaks. Insolence of the gesture, provocation, shock in the strict hierarchy of the Paris Opera Ballet, discomfort in the audience for the « balletomanes »... Once more, you can bet that Jerome Bel and his audience will have many things to discuss at the end of the performance.

Jean-Max Colard 22.09.2004