In “The Pelicot Trial,” the audience is invited to explore the emotional and political landscape underpinning the work of Milo Rau & Servane Dècle, presented during the 5th edition of the Biennial. Filmed against the symbolic backdrop of the National Pantheon, this mini-documentary follows a project that restores art’s public function: to make us see, to make us feel, and, above all, to make us remember.
At the entrance to the National Pantheon, during the BoCA Biennial, the phrase “Shame must switch sides” was emblazoned on a hand-painted banner, marking the start of the performative vigil “The Pelicot Trial” by Milo Rau and Servane Dècle, featuring more than twenty-five figures from the worlds of culture, journalism, and activism.
Between legal memory and artistic reactivation, between historical fact and its public resonance, this documentary follows the processes of research and creation that gave rise to the performance, conceived as a tribute to Gisèle Pelicot.
More than a record of a scenic architecture that calls the audience to attentive listening, the work also offers a critical reflection on violence against women and on collective ways of making it visible.
Through excerpts from essays, interviews, and footage from the public presentation, this mini-documentary on “The Pelicot Trial,” presented during the 5th edition of the biennial, follows the creative process behind the work and reveals how the stage transforms into an expanded courtroom—a space where the trial is reconstructed from hundreds of hours of testimonies, evidence, interviews, forensic analyses, visual records, collages, and academic texts.
By following the work of director Milo Rau, in collaboration with playwright and activist Servane Dècle, these images show how the creation does not simply seek to reconstruct the facts, but to erect a true architecture of listening, memory, and resistance.
