Culture and Health Department Nouvelle-Aquitaine

The project is an artistic and cultural action on the scale of the territory to collect the words of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease in the residential facilities for dependent elderly people (EHPADs) of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region willing to get involved in this process. The words of people with Alzheimer's disease are often ignored or considered incomprehensible or even senseless. However, these words and phrases often carry meaning for those who know how to listen to them in the light of the history of the person who utters them. Following the collection of words by professionals from more than 120 EHPADs in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the author Renaud Borderie was commissioned to write a dramaturgical text based on all these words. Once this text was written, three companies were commissioned to produce a production based on it. After a joint residency at the Molière-Scène d'Aquitaine, performaces were presented in the territories of New Aquitaine.

The project is an artistic and cultural action on the scale of the territory to collect the words of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease in the residential facilities for dependent elderly people (EHPADs) of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region willing to get involved in this process. The words of people with Alzheimer's disease are often ignored or considered incomprehensible or even senseless. However, these words and phrases often carry meaning for those who know how to listen to them in light of the history of the person who utters them.
Facing this observation, and strengthened by the experience of "Ça s'arrête à quel âge?" (It stops at what age?), Michel Laforcade, Director General of the New Aquitaine Regional Health Agency, wished in 2016 to set up an artistic action to collect the words of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
This project has the social ambition to question the way we collectively pay attention to the difference. Thus, through theater and video, "Je ne voudrais pas déranger" leads us to take a step aside from our perceptions, our habits and our attitudes towards Alzheimer's disease. Thanks to the shift brought about by the language of theater, thanks to the translation of a supposedly senseless material into an artistic statement, the public collectively discover the poetry of these words, reexamine their image of this disease and that of the people who suffer from it. In this way, the public empathizes with the people suffering for Alzheimer's disease. The author Renaud Borderie was commissioned to write a dramaturgical text based on all these words, a collection of words from more than 120 EHPADs institutions in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Once this text was written, three companies were commissioned to produce a production based on it. After a joint residency at the Molière-Scène d'Aquitaine, the performances were presented in the territories of New Aquitaine. The piloting of the project was carried out by the Culture and Health department in New Aquitaine and OARA and ended on June 30, 2019.