FRENCH JOURNEY - PROGRAMME 2

MARSEILLE - DJ & CHORÉGRAPHES

Marseille is bursting with artistic activity.  David went to La Friche, an old tobacco factory which has been transformed into one of the largest arts-centres in the city.
About a thousand artists pass through the door each year, to perform.  They come from every area - theatre, dance, music, mime, sculpture, cinema and multimedia.  And all together, they represent this Marseille mixture.  Intrigued, David went to find out all about it.

David:  Hi, I'm David

Rebel:  Pleased to meet you. Rebel

David:  What do you do here?

Rebel:  I'm an instructor.  I teach a bit about Djing to the young and the not so young, who want to know more about the art of being a DJ.

David:  What's he doing?

Rebel:  He's mixing - that means he goes from the turn-table on the left to the turn-table on the right, and vice versa, whilst keeping the tempo. The aim is to mix one record with another whilst keeping the beat.

David:  Can I try?

Rebel:  Of course you can try.  The only thing you have to remember is to keep these marks opposite the head so that you start at the beginning of the beat Press gently on the record as if it was a pretty girl.  So when you let go of your record, it'll play straight away.  The aim of the game is to be hyper, hyper...

David:  You do that one, I'll do this one. 

Rebel:  Don't press 'start'.

David:   How many out of ten?

Rebel:   It's the first time you've done it so I can't give you a mark, it's impossible.

David:  Zero?

Rebel:  Less than zero!

"You are here" is the title of a massive art exhibition that covers the entire area of the 
8 000m² roof of La Friche.  It's the creation of two choregraphers - Bernard Misrachi and Madeleine Chiche.  Video screens and loudspeakers are randomly placed on the roof.  The public are invited to walk into the centre of this space. 

Madeleine Chiche:  Some people call it an installation, others a show or an exhibition.  For us, it's an extension of our work as choreographers.

Bernard Misrachi:  We like working on what we call the immediate environment.  On ways of being present in the world and making people aware of things in our immediate surroundings.  So it could be a pedestrian crossing the road, a little boy saying something funny or it could be the tap running in the basin.  These are insignificant things but when you look at them more closely, they're full of information.

David couldn't resist any longer.  He made a new friend, and here's their homage to Bernard and Madeleine's work.

Bernard Misrachi:  Every evening we look at how the public use the space that we've created for them and they use it very well, so we're pleased.

Copyright BBC 2000.