LʼEncyclopédie de la parole is an artistic project exploring the oral character in all its forms.

Since 2007, this collective uniting musicians, poets, directors, visual artists, actors, sociolinguists and curators has been collecting various recordings of words and making an inventory of them on its website by their particular properties or phenomena such as cadence, chorality, timbre, address, saturation and melody.

What do the poetry of Marinetti, the dialogues of Louis de Funès, a horse-racing commentary, a lecture by Jacques Lacan, an excerpt from South Park, the flow of Eminem or Lil Wayne, a message left on an answerphone, the questions of Julien Lepers, an Adventist sermon, the Young and the Restless in French, a speech by Léon Blum or Bill Clinton, an auction sale, a shamanic incantation, the declamations of Sarah Bernhardt, a speech for the defence by Jacques Vergès, a shampoo advert and conversations recorded in the local café have in common?

Using this collection, which today comprises close to 800 sound documents, l’Encyclopédie de la parole produces sound pieces, performances and shows, lectures, games and exhibitions.

Today, lʼEncyclopédie de la parole is made up of Frédéric Danos, Emmanuelle Lafon, Nicolas Rollet, Joris Lacoste and Elise Simonet.

Workshop

This workshop is an invitation to enter the processes that are at the core of the Encyclopédie’s work : collecting, indexing and re-enacting speech recordings. Using specific research methodologies, we will collect new audio documents related to Brussels and its multiple languages, reflecting about the singularities of oral speeches in a specific local context.
The participants will then vocally experiment these fragments during the workshop.

Some elements will be performed in a public presentation at the end of the workshop.

Joris Lacoste and Elise Simonet

Joris Lacoste

Joris Lacoste has been writing for theater and radio since 1996 and has been producing his own shows since 2003.
He created 9 lyriques pour actrice et caisse claire in 2005 with Stéphanie Béghain and Purgatoire at the Théâtre National de la Colline in 2007. From 2007 to 2009, he was co-director of Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers. Taking his inspiration from literature, theater, dance, visual arts, music, sound poetry, his work is always deeply researched.
In 2009 he launched the project "Hypnographie" to explore artistic uses of hypnosis: he produced the radio play Au Musée du sommeil (2009), the exhibition-performance Le Cabinet d'hypnose (2010), the exhibition 12 prepared dreams (GB Agency Paris 2012), the play Le vrai spectacle (2011) and the performance art pieces Restitution (2010), La maison vide (2012), and 4 prepared dreams (for April March, Jonathan Caouette, Tony Conrad and Annie Dorsen) in New York in October 2012.
He started two collective projects, le projet W in 2004, and L’Encyclopédie de la Parole in 2007 with which he has created the shows Parlement (2009), Suite Nº1 (2013), Suite Nº2 (2015) and Suite n°3 ‘Europe’ (2017).

Elise Simonet

Following training in directing and scenography in Bordeaux, Elise Simonet works today alongside numerous artists in the domain of live art, whether as assistant, dramaturg, or artistic collaborator.
Since 2010 she has accompanied the work of Alain Michard, Grand Magasin, l’Amicale de Production, Belinda Annaloro, Gérald Kurdian, Jung-Ae Kim, Pauline Simon, Mette Ingvarsten, Mylène Benoit, Thibaud Croisy, Anne-Sophie Turion and Jeanne Moynot, Nina Santes and Célia Gondol, François Lanel, Julie Gouju and Adeline Anobile, Olga Dukhovnaya.
As a member of the group l’Encyclopédie de la parole, of which she has been associated since 2013, her research touches orality and documentary recordings of speech within live art. She is the artistic collaborator of Joris Lacoste on the Suites Chorales cycle (Suite n°1 ‘abc’ - 2013 / Suite n°2 - 2015 / Suite n°3 ‘Europe’ - 2017). In 2015 and 2016 she co-programmed the TJCC festival alongside Joris Lacoste at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers. In 2012 she created Mon cauchemar, an auditory and visual piece departing from a collection of confounding dreams.
Currently she is developing the project Parler la musique, which is based on conversations with musicians and lyricists.

Illustration

The Cifas asks contemporary artists to illustrate its communication.

Alexandre Delft illustrated the workshop led by Joris Lacoste and Elise Simonet / L'Encyclopédie de la parole.
Alexandre Delft was already drawing before he learnt the alphabet. For many years, his work has spread onto world maps, a world which he likes to explore with a light bag and a free mind. When he returns to Brussels, he fills his books with texts and drawings.
His work are made out of photographs mixing various techniques (watercolours, pencils, markers, inks, pastels...).