Clément PIEDNOEL DUVAL
Author

Clément received a grant to help him finance his studies at the École du Nord.

What is your artistic background ?
My artistic path has been nourished by many influences. My late discovery of theater, at 17 years of age during Hypokhâgne studies; my rural and proletarian roots in Normandy; my encounter with the Compagnons Butineurs, with whom I discovered clowning and theater in situ; my university education in Paris, in Arts and Philosophy and in Gender Studies; my involvement in militant associations; my chosen family; my encounter with performance in Saint-Denis; my two-year training as an actor; my entry into the Ecole du Nord; my need to write the stories I couldn't find elsewhere.

What is your view of your profession today ?
I think there are the beginnings of an awareness, especially thanks to the new generations, of the need to renew our stories. It is not enough to reappropriate pre-existing stories, almost all written from the same points of view. We need to highlight ignored or forgotten stories and build new theatrical, and therefore political, mythologies.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I will do the same thing as today but always differently. A heterogeneous mix of writing, directing, acting, activism, creations in situ, on the street and in theatres. I hope that I will always be searching, exploring, creating laboratory zones.

Interview conducted in 2022
Photography credit : Julie Glassberg