What do artistic and cultural practices bring to those living in detention? Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni reframes the question. It is less a matter of “bringing something” than sharing thoughts and emotions by creating a shared space of freedom in a place where it has been taken away…
In his mind, the practice of theatre has become truly meaningful in the last few decades by gracing those who have been battered by life. Many years before he opened his site , a “free zone for ethical and supportive art and culture”, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni had set foot in places of tension and detention – places where you meet the men and women who resemble the extravagant, battered characters of great literary classics.
In the beginning was the book
He started visiting prisons at the behest of a remarkable woman, Geneviève Guilhem, who fought to make her prison library worthy of a public service. That was why she invited Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni to offer writing workshops at Fleury-Mérogis.
More than thirty years down the line, have books lost some of their glamour in prison? To say that would be to forget that prison is not society: digital technology is only available in the form of television, and books are still essential.
“What is more wonderful than to discover literature at forty years old!” said Jean-Pierre. In the middle of a workshop, he saw a young man waving to him in the distance, showing him a book he was carrying under his arm: “I don’t understand a thing, but it’s magnificent!”. It was Spinoza’s Ethics… Another inmate had become enamoured with Jean Moulin’s works and had done presentations and exhibitions and set up reading circles on them.
“These are things that don’t happen elsewhere. Workshops fade, books remain,” he concluded.
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From text to body
Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni has headed different activities in prison, including writing workshops, theatre workshops and cultural outreach degree courses. The inmates who participate in the different activities are not necessarily the same. However, testimonies concur on the fact any activity in prison is attractive if only because they offer inmates a temporary escape from their cell.
Once the group is gathered, there is still everything to do. While, on the outside, a traditional theatre workshop starts by forging the body-tool with warm-ups, in prison, Jean-Pierre does the opposite: “We start by acting out situations, playing characters, and work on the body comes after. Improvisation is a key tool: I have participated in many sessions on detention! We progress from lived situations to abstract ones.”
Jean-Pierre is brimming with anecdotes, like the staging of Ulysses at the request of an inmate: “One of my loveliest memories! He had already cast the actors before we arrived. Very quickly, we understood that what was at stake was Penelope, with the very transparent metaphor “Could I still bend my bow?”. Under the surface, the matter of emotional and sexual solitude emerged, crucial in the minds of prisoners and never mentioned directly. That production of Ulysses played on people’s minds for months; guards called the inmates by their stage names, Telemachus and the Cyclops!"
Moving stories on activities do not gild the reality of prison. Intervening there remains a fight, particularly regarding the permanence of annually funded activities. In a prison the size of Fleury Mérogis, accessing artistic workshops is still a challenge: “You have to find a poster and fill out a request form that is passed on by the vocational counsellors,” explained Alex, a former inmate who trained to be a librarian with Lire C’est Vivre (“to read is to live”). “It’s difficult for those who don’t master reading and writing. Some subjects like music are inaccessible, because we aren’t allowed instruments. I saw a musician friend make a piano out of folding cardboard to be able to practise!”
Then, as for other places of tension, comes the question of “after”, which can be poignant:
Envisioning the “after”
The aim of the degree course set up by Jean-Pierre Chrétien-Goni in collaboration with CNAM is to build pathways with the time left until inmates’ release. The term “cultural outreach” covers enough different activities to offer inmates professional training opportunities.
Franck **, who took the course in Fresnes and obtained his degree with brilliant results, describes a life changing experience. “It was incredible to do it in prison! We were outside a strict academic setting: it was a workshop where we could share our views and analyse a text, a picture or a video. Of course, it faced the restrictions of prison: it was impossible to have Internet access or a camera!"
Like other inmates who had taken the course, Franck worked as a stage manager in venues hosting live shows. Now, he is a freelancer in the arts industry.
** His name has been changed.
also welcomes inmates serving the end of their sentence, or recently released. Alex was able to do an audiovisual editing internship as part of a semi custodial regime at the detention centre in Melun, which allowed him to leave from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The experience of holding workshops in prison and supporting inmates in transitioning to life on the outside also encouraged him, in turn, to take action for prisoners. He works for the Auxilia association, which has taken educational action in prisons for 91 years, and released a booklet and a video on the association’s remarkable founder, Marguerite Rivard.
It also brought him to join Ban Public, an association for the defence of inmates.
His testimony, like Franck’s, provides an answer to the existential question faced by the artists taking action in prisons: “This is my purpose”.
Article by Valérie de Saint-Do for the .
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Art-Lab Talks are part of the . This is a UNESCO initiative which aims at mainstreaming the arts and culture across humanitarian and development programmes. It aims to highlight the crucial role of artists in defending human and cultural rights, and is currently coordinating a literature review on existing policies, alternative voices to the dominant cultural narrative, ethical practices and charters that promote human rights and inclusion of the most vulnerable through the arts.
The of this review were presented during a virtual event organized by UNESCO on 10 December 2020, in commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly.
Under the umbrella of the (2013-2022), Art-Lab participates in spearheading global efforts to leverage dialogue for development and peace.
Through a comprehensive programme of coordination, research, capacity-building and advocacy, Art-Lab underscores UNESCO’s role as the leading authority on intercultural cooperation for peace.
Art-Lab’s ambition is to consolidate a portfolio of ethical practices; produce training tools for cultural and humanitarian operators; sensitize policy-actors; train cultural, humanitarian and development workers; develop its multi-stakeholder platform, including UNESCO Chairs and international experts, art activists and development operators; and enroll over 100,000 people living in places of hardship in artistic initiatives.
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