The Class / Anna Rispoli - Close Encounters (new work)

How do teenagers talk about love? Once a month for a year, students from two different secondary schools in Brussels met and became The Class. With Anna Rispoli, continuing the research she began last year with Your wordin my mouth, The Class investigates the relationship between authority, intimacy and love, well beyond its simple association with sentimental relationships. The result is a series of real conversations that the group selected, edited and re-recorded and that will eventually be shared with the spectators. Guided by a voice in their ear, each spectator of Close Encounters will re-enact a one-to-one conversation with one of the young co-authors. It is a conversation that has already happened, and yet is also happening in the present in this new, intimate encounter. Infiltrating the labyrinthine architecture of La Monnaie, Close Encounters recreates a constellation of spaces where we hide to talk about love.

Credits
Students involved: Asma Abdeslami, Barkat Abdoulwahab, Francesca Ate,
Mohamed Ayari, Abdoulaye Bah, Mohammed Belhadj, Hafsa Berrabhi,
Soufiane Boutagumant, Demba Diallo, Nisrine El Gharnati, Ouassima El
Mashouli, Wassila El Yahyaoui, Paata Gambarashvili, Fatima Guezzari,
Türkan Gülal, Cristian Iolu, Yousra Islane, Abderrahmane Krimel, Aiman L’Ghazouan, Amina Majidi, Fatima Majidi, Mardoché Malaba, Atiyya Merchant, Lina M’Rabet, Ayoub Mouhoua, Mohammed Moussaoui, Victoria Paluka, Fareha Raza Xheme Vogli, Laura Verriez
Workshops: Enrica Camporesi, Paulo Guerreiro, Carolin Herzberg, Anna Rispoli
Video: Luca Mattei
Teachers: Marleen Allaert, Valérie Asselberghs, Florence Hanoset, Stefanie Peeters
Production and external eye: Marine Thévenet
Coordination: Daan Simons, Anne Watthee
Presentation: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, La Monnaie/De Munt
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, De Veerman
With the support of: Dynamo 3 (Cultuurkuur, Vlaamse Overheid), La Cellule Culture-Enseignement (FWB) & Sven Gatz, Flemish Minister in Brussels
Thanks to: Gemeenschapscentrum De Kriekelaar, La Maison des Cultures et de la Cohésion Sociale de Molenbeek, Charleroi danse, RITCS Bottelarij, Zinnema