A minute of silence was observed Wednesday evening in memory of Nahel, killed on June 27 in Nanterre by a policeman, during the opening show of the 77th Festival d’Avignon, noted an AFP journalist on the spot. The opening show in the Cour d’honneur at the Palais des Papes began with this minute of silence, at the request of director Julie Deliquet, who was standing alongside the new director of the Festival Tiago Rodrigues. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak was also spotted in the audience.
For its first edition, Tiago Rodrigues has chosen to open the Festival with Welfare, a social show by Julie Deliquet, the second director to present a play at the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes after Ariane Mnouchkine. The piece slips into the news of this year, marked by a strong mobilization against the pension reform and more recently riots against a backdrop of social fractures.
It is an adaptation of the documentary by American Frederick Wiseman on “15 anonymous heroes during a day in a social assistance center in New York”, declared the director of the Festival to AFP. For the occasion, the Court of Honor has been transformed into a center for social assistance, with a basketball court in the middle, with benches, cupboards and mattresses around.