French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Bénichou (ed.), Recréer / Scripter. Mémoires et transmissions des oeuvres performatives et chorégraphiques contemporaines
Theatre and Performance

Bibliographic reference: Anne Bénichou (ed.), Recréer / Scripter – Mémoires et transmissions des oeuvres performatives et chorégraphiques contemporaines, Les presses du réel, collection "Nouvelles scènes", 2015. EAN13: 9782840667469.

Anne Bénichou (ed.)

Recréer / Scripter – Mémoires et transmissions des oeuvres performatives et chorégraphiques contemporaines

Les presses du réel, 544 pages (39 color ill. and 36 b&w ill.), Price: 29 EUR.

Texts by Clarisse Bardiot, Anne Bénichou, Yves Bergeron, Marc Boivin, Elsa Bourdot, Ginelle Chagnon, Mario Côté, Les Deux Gullivers (Flutura Preka & Besnik Haxhillari), Amélie Giguère, Amelia Jones, Isabelle Launay, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, André Lepecki, Babette Mangolte, Sylvie Mokhtari, Jacques Perron, Isabelle Poirier, Céline Roux, Theresa Rowat, Michèle Rust, Jessica Santone, Noémie Solomon, Ming Tiampo.

Between documentation and re-creation: memory and the transmission of performance art and contemporary dance.

The transmission of contemporary performance and choreographic works has sparked lively theoretical, aesthetic, political, institutional, pedagogical, methodological, and legal debates. As ephemeral artistic practices that engage the body and are created in relation to an audience, performance and contemporary dance require modes of transmission that draw on both archival records and oral and bodily memory. This dual register—the terms of which are too often viewed in opposition—explains why performance art and choreographic works have until recently eluded heritage institutions, which tend to favor archival, documentary, and material approaches to transmission.

This book explores the avenues opened up by memory-based approaches to the archive. Reenactments are examined as "performative archives" that establish a dialogue between documents, bodies, scripts, and experiential accounts. Playing an integral role in the aesthetic operation of the works and their revivals, documentation becomes a driver of creation, sparking multiple reactivations through exhibitions, performances, and websites. These reassessments give rise to new ways of conceptualizing the histories of the performing arts, encompassing document hermeneutics, historiographical laboratories within exhibitions, and memory production at the heart of artistic practice. To flourish, these practices call for the invention of heterodox structures or the convergence of institutions dedicated to material culture and those devoted to repertoires, without shunning the dissensus and friction essential to a "complex thinking" about transmission phenomena.

This volume stems from the colloquium Documenter, recréer… Mémoires et transmissions des oeuvres performatives et chorégraphiques contemporaines, held in Montreal on May 2–4, 2013, and organized jointly by the Jean-Pierre Perreault Foundation and the Heritage Institute of the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Table of contents...

This volume contributes to the fields of performance studies and archival theory, addressing the challenges of preserving ephemeral, body-centered art forms. Traditionally, heritage institutions have relied on material documents to record history, a method that often fails to capture the fluid nature of contemporary dance and live art. By introducing concepts such as performative archives and reenactments, the contributors demonstrate how bodily memory and physical repetition can function as vital repositories. This approach redefines the archive not as a static collection of relics, but as an active, creative process of transmission.

Recréer / Scripter helps readers navigate the complex relationship between documentation and live performance, questioning how ephemeral works can be restaged without losing their original essence. It offers valuable insights for researchers, curators, choreographers, and archivists grappling with the preservation of intangible heritage. By bridging the gap between material culture and bodily repertoire, the essays provide practical and theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing the future of performing arts history. This book is an essential resource for anyone interested in contemporary curation, dance notation, and the politics of cultural memory.