Nine details about good and bad government

Conversation between Gaëlle Bourges and Marco Villari about the show Conjurer la peur

Conjurer la peur is based on an Italian fresco painted by A. Lorenzetti in 1338 – "The Effects of Good and Bad Government" – analyzed in the eponymous book* by historian Patrick Boucheron, who also provided the title for the show. The choreographed piece is a way of bringing back, through the medium of live performance, ancient images, which are here a form of political propaganda. By describing precisely what we see in the painting—thus creating a descriptive language and physically entering into the attitudes of the figures represented—and by inventing gestures, the show relies on the performers' ability to create a faithful but open vision of a still image that never ages. Marco Villari and Gaëlle Bourges provide some tools for understanding the processes that were put in place to bring the Italian fresco to mind, examining nine details of the images of good and bad government.

* Conjurer la peur, Sienne 1338 – Essay on the political power of images by Patrick Boucheron, published by Éditions du Seuil in 2013