PIETRE – 20 PIERRES

20 pierres is a performance conceived by Laura Vazquez and Élise Blotière, articulated in two parts: the screening of the film Pietre, directed by Élise Blotière, followed by a reading performed by Laura Vazquez. 

This performance is an extension of an installation created at the Villa Médicis in Rome, where Laura Vazquez's poem “20 pierres” was engraved on twenty stones in the gardens. The film follows the journey of these stones, from their extraction in the quarry to their installation in the gardens, Rome.

Created as an asyntactic text that offers a multidirectional reading, the engraved poème constitutes the origin of a set of twenty textual fragments, each laboré&eagrave; from the twenty words of the initial poème. A selection of these fragments will be performed by Laura Vazquez. Together, they will form a book, scheduled for publication in 2027.

Poet and novelist, Laura Vazquez won the Prix de la Vocation in 2014 for her collection La Main de la main, published by Cheyne. Her first novel La Semaine perpétuelle won special mention in the Prix Wepler. In 2023, she was awarded the Goncourt de la poeacute;sie for her body of work. Zéro) and Philippe Quesne (Le jardin des délices, Le paradoxe de John).

Film synopsis 
In a volcanic stone quarry in Italy, the machines work loudly, sawing, grinding, cutting, shaving, slowing down. Later, at the stonemason's in Rome, the stones come to life: a poem by Laura Vazquez is engraved, day after day, on twenty stones. In the gardens of Villa Médicis, poems and stones cohabit with a whole living world.

PIETRE

réalization Elise Blotière
Co-production Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis
Estimated running time : 25 minutes