The trotteuses
When I read The Arabian Nights, I find myself in several places at once: in the desert with Aladdin – the scene of the story –, in the room where Scheherazade is telling Aladdin's story to the king – the place where the story is told for the first time –, and in the room where I am reading – where the story is being told to me personally –.
Scheherazade's tales are not gratuitous. She tells them both to put off the hour of her death and to seduce the king. Sometimes I read passages that are so engrossing that before I have even finished them, I feel I have to put my book down and walk a little. As if I needed these few steps to give my body too a chance to stroll through all the different spaces created by my reading.
This is the physical type of reading that I would like to develop with the trotteuses. In their company, I want visitors to become carriers of stories; for them to feel charged with that same presence that accompanies us when we walk alone in the street, still full of the story we have just read.