Helen PARIS

 

Project at the MaCI

April 2024 - December 2024

Paris is engaged in an interdisciplinary program of work that connects across three areas of experimental and experiential research in the arts that are a focus at the MaCI: performance studies, health and medical humanities, and creative writing. This research will result in the creation of a novel, currently titled The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You… which tells the story of two octogenarian dancers and how their encounter with dance saves them both in very different ways as they find themselves on a European tour with an experimental performance art company... The story is about desire and dance, intergenerational relationships and the enduring power of live performance. The research will also provide the foundations for building a creative writing, performance practicum, (working title) Creating through Change which will employ different theatre, performance and writing techniques to enable artistic expression and a sense of individual and collective well being. Paris will feed this back to the Sidney De Haan Center for Health and Arts research where she is an associate researcher.

Whilst at MaCI Paris will connect with relevant organisations in France who are interested in the intersection of art and health such as the work done at Louvre-Lens. She will also connect with the research of Living Well Ageing Well as a continuation of her interest in looking  at arts, health and aging.

The arts are our universal language.  They unite us, heals us, remind us who we are and who we can be.  So much over recent years whether within or without of our control has been about erecting borders and keeping us apart. What continues to bring communities together in these times of grief, fear and rupture is the enduring, suturing and connective power of the arts.

This project  is about  the intrinsic value and importance of the arts and humanities at a moment then they are being significantly devalued. It is also about the enormous benefits of arts to mental health.

At the heart of this project is this question: What is the piece of art (performance, music, dance, image) that has saved you?

Back to "Fellows 2024"

Funded by the French government's Programme d'Investissement Avenir and implemented by ANR France 2030