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A wonderful act of love for the written word

In the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury describes how books are burnt everywhere in the world. Only a few rebels learn a work by heart and try to make it survive orally. The Norwegian artist Mette Edvardsen wants to organise this act of resistance again in Belgium.

For Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine Edvardsen asked each of a group of actors to learn by heart a book of their choice. Together the actors form a library of living books. They spend their time in such a library, sitting in chairs, talking together, looking out of the window, ready to be consulted. As a visitor you choose a book that takes you to a place in the library, where the book is 'read to' you in an intimate one-to-one moment. During this performance literature is alive as it has never been before.

Mette Edvardsen explained in De Standaard  that the performance is also about the practice of learning by heart. 'Especially in the East it is part of the culture, think for instance of Russia, where forbidden stories were passed on in this way. Unless our job requires it – think of actors – there's little interest in it in Europe.' Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine wants to show that there's beauty in forgetting and learning by heart again and again.

Mette Edvardsen live and works in Brussels. Most of the time she is active within the performing arts but she also explores other media such as video and literature. She danced with Les ballets C de la B for quite some time, but since 2002 she has also created her own productions, such as the trilogy Black (2011), No Title (2014), which was to be seen at NEXTfestival, and We to be (2015), which was made in BUDA. In the latter she examined the possibilities and limits of language and how it can affect the imagination of the public. For this performance Edvardsen received the Norwegian Ibsen prize in 2016.

'It feels in the traditional quiet of the library to have the silence broken by the books themselves' – Lynn Gardner, The Guardian

VALENCIENNES 
réservation gratuite: billetterie@lephenix.fr
> 09.11 - 12:00>18:00 Bibliothèque Victor Hugo, 12 Rue Victor Hugo, Onnaing
> 10.11 - 09:00>13:00 - Bibliothèque universitaire du Mont-Houy, Bâtiment Josquin des Prés Aulnoy-les-Valenciennes 
> 12.11 - 12:00>19:00 - Bibliothèque universitaire du Mont-Houy, Bâtiment Josquin des Prés Aulnoy-les-Valenciennes 
> 14.11 - 12:00>18:00 - Bibliothèque universitaire du Mont-Houy, Bâtiment Josquin des Prés Aulnoy-les-Valenciennes 
> 13.11 - 10:00>12:30 + 14:00>18:00 - Médiathèque le Quai 13 Impasse Berthelot Condé-sur-l’Escaut

 
LILLE
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> 15.11 - 11:00>12:30 + 14:00>18:30 - Médiathèque La Grand Plage 2 rue Pierre Motte, Roubaix
> 16.11 - 10:00>12:30 + 14:00>17:00 - Médiathèque de Lille Sud 11 rue de l’Asie, Lille
> 17.11 - 10:00>12:30 + 14:00>16:30 - Médiathèque André Malraux 26 rue Famelart, Tourcoing

 
KORTRIJK 
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> 21, 22, 23 & 24.11 - 10:00>12:30 + 14:00>17:00 - Openbare Bibliotheek Leiestraat 30, Kortrijk
> 24.11 - 17:00 - Book Launch Afternoon Editions with Jeroen Peeters Budascoop Kortrijk


VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ 
réservation gratuite : alesage@larose.fr
> 27, 28, 29 & 30.11 - 10:00>13:00 + 15:00>18:00 - Bibliothèque Universitaire SHS – Sciences Humaines et Sociales (Domaine univer- sitaire du Pont de Bois), Rue du Barreau, Villeneuve d'Ascq