Science, desires and the imaginary: a three-way dialogue between Pierre Meunier (artist), Gaëlle Martin-Gassin and Boris Chenaud (scientists)

An original proposal at the crossroads of the arts and sciences. A time for cross-fertilization around desire, artistic and scientific frictions on matter, the process of research and creation.

Meeting organized by the art & culture department, the scientific culture department of the University of Montpellier and the Théâtre des 13 vents, around the performances of La Bobine de Rhumkorff (January 31, February¹ and 2) and the Bachelard Quartet (February 7,8,9) by Marguerite Bordat and Pierre Meunier, at the Théâtre des 13 vents.

Pierre Meunier 's artistic career spans circus, theater and cinema. He has worked with Pierre Etaix, Annie Fratellini, Philippe Caubère, Zingaro, la Volière Dromesko, Giovanna Marini, François Tanguy, Matthias Langhoff, Jean-Paul Wenzel, Joël Pommerat.
Pierre Meunier constructs and writes his own shows, inventing a scenic style that brings concrete physics into play with mechanisms and raw materials, veritable partners of the actors on stage. In his studio, he experiments with dynamic sculptures and other installations, quiet research guided by a captivation for the strangeness of these presences so stimulating for the imagination. His work is nourished by encounters with scientists and philosophers, stays in industrial forges, workshops in psychiatric institutions, periods of writing, as well as improvisations on stage with the team gathered around a theatrical project. The aim is always to provoke a fertile disturbance in the spectator's mind, to arouse an intimate, active reverie, capable of linking the dreamlike, social, political, poetic and metaphysical dimensions of the individual through impromptu resonance.

Gaëlle Martin-Gassin is a lecturer in chemistry-physics at the University of Montpellier - Institut Charles Gerhardt de Montpellier. She teaches from undergraduate to PhD level, and is developing non-linear optics experiments to study molecular interactions in liquid media within porous nanomaterials. Her involvement in the CoSA (Connexion Art et Science) group is a sign of her openness. His scientific research most likely benefits from a sense of wonder and freedom of thought.

Boris Chenaud is a lecturer in physics at the University of Montpellier - Charles Coulomb Laboratory. A research professor in physics at the Faculty of Science, his research focuses mainly on experimental quantum transport and quantum metrology. He is involved in a number of initiatives to promote scientific culture. As such, he has co-organized various initiatives in Montpellier: for the World Year of Physics in 2005, the Year of Light in 2015 and, most recently, for the Year of Physics 2023, with the installation of a giant Foucault pendulum in Place du Nombre d'Or.

Free admission.