Voix Publiques - Louisa Babari

"Voix Publiques" is a sound installation designed for public spaces. The installation consists of recordings of poetic texts performed by artists from the African continent and its diaspora. A sound piece made of voices, "Voix Publiques" is a programme that reflects the diversity of poetic writing and interpretation. It aims to break down barriers in how texts are perceived and to celebrate interpretations. "Voix Publiques" favours the participation of authors from different generations from the African continent. The performers are poets, opera singers or artists from spoken word, visual artists, songwriters, actors, or simply amateurs and readers of poetry. Designed to be deployed outdoors (streets, squares, green spaces), Voix Publiques revives a tradition of popular poetic dissemination, at the heart of the city and its neighbourhoods, so that the public can hear poetic literature in its many forms and in different languages. Authors and performers join their voices and breaths and take part in a programme in which the African continent looks at the world and speaks of it.

"Voix Publiques" is a work and a programme conceived with a collaborative dimension. The work and the poetry dissemination programme are destined to be enriched by the artistic contributions that take shape during its setting up and its presentation in the various venues concerned. In its aim to envisage and promote local poetic productions, "Voix Publique"s incorporates two dimensions: the work and the programme are at once an archive and a living memory of poetic literary production, whether text or voice. For the Mediterranean Season 2026, "Voix Publiques" focuses on poetic production from the African countries of the Mediterranean, with a focus on Algerian poetic creation.

Authors envisaged (non-exhaustive list):

Lamis Saidi, Ramzy Naili, Abd