Science, Desire, and the Imagination: A Three-Way Dialogue Between Pierre Meunier (artist), Gaëlle Martin-Gassin, and Boris Chenaud (scientists)

An original initiative at the intersection of the arts and sciences. A time for cross-pollination centered on desire and longing, and on artistic and scientific exchanges regarding materials, the research process, and the creative process.

An event organized by the Art & Culture Department, the Scientific Culture Department of the University of Montpellier, and the Théâtre des 13 Vents, in conjunction with performances of Rhumkorff’s La Bobine (January 31, February¹ and 2) and Bachelard Quartet (February 7, 8, and 9) by Marguerite Bordat and Pierre Meunier, at the Théâtre des 13 vents.

Pierre Meunier ’s artistic career spans the worlds of circus, theater, and film. He has worked with Pierre Etaix, Annie Fratellini, Philippe Caubère, Zingaro, La Volière Dromesko, Giovanna Marini, François Tanguy, Matthias Langhoff, Jean-Paul Wenzel, and Joël Pommerat.
Pierre Meunier creates and writes his own shows, inventing a theatrical style that brings physicality into play through mechanisms and raw materials, which become true partners to the actors on stage. In his studio, he experiments with dynamic sculptures and other installations—quiet explorations guided by a fascination with the strangeness of these presences that so stimulate the imagination. His work draws inspiration from encounters with scientists and philosophers, stays in industrial foundries, workshops in psychiatric settings, 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 stir within them an active, intimate reverie capable of connecting, through spontaneous resonance, the dreamlike, social, political, poetic, and metaphysical dimensions of the person.

Gaëlle Martin-Gassin is an associate professor of physical chemistry at the University of Montpellier – Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier. She teaches at all levels from undergraduate to doctoral programs and develops nonlinear optical experiments to study molecular interactions in liquid environments within porous nanomaterials. Her involvement in the CoSA (Art and Science Connection) group stems from a certain openness. Her scientific research most likely benefits from a sense of wonder and the freedom to explore new avenues of thought.

Boris Chenaud is an associate professor of physics at the University of Montpellier – Charles Coulomb Laboratory. As Professor physics in the Faculty of Sciences, his research focuses primarily on experimental quantum transport and quantum metrology. He is involved in various initiatives aimed at promoting scientific literacy. In this capacity, he has co-organized various initiatives in Montpellier: for the International 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 at Place du Nombre d’Or.

Free admission.