Productions Rhizome

Rhizome is a Quebec-based NPO whose mandate is to produce shows that integrate literature performed by the author in a multidisciplinary context. The organization promotes hybrid forms of recited literature that borrow techniques from theatre, cinematography, video design, art installations, sound design, photography, and digital art. The role of these artistic disciplines is not to provide a backdrop to the literature, as in conventional recitations, but to nourish research that aims at engaging the disciplines in confrontations with each other, at testing their links and boundaries. Rhizome seeks to stimulate the creation and development of new, hybrid forms of art. With this goal in mind, shows become a kind of laboratory where daring experiments are carried out to analyse the concept of "performed literature" and establish a distinct definition of the genre.

Recited literature holds a dominant position in the research activities sponsored by Rhizome. Three constraints form the basis of all our productions. First, authors must be present on stage. We want authors to engage in confrontations with their own texts and characters, as much as with the general audience. This opposition derives from our intention of renewing and redefining the role the roles of writers in the public realm. Second, another artistic discipline must be immersed in the stage environment to complement and interact with the recited literature. Last, texts not originally destined for the stage (such as news items, passages from novels, poetry, etc.) should be used.