Nesting tables
A collaborative work with Nadia Cabestan and Maryse Maillard-Félix, scenography in progress (2024)
"TABLE"
Text by Isabelle Fournier, July 1, 2022
TA - BLE 2 syllables 1 word
How many times have you heard this word? ! AT TABLE !
Heard this word over and over again! AT TABLE !
Hold on to the table!
Don't put your elbows on the table!
Put your hands on the table!
Don't slouch on the table!
TABLE: a drawing word to learn the basics of all foreign languages: below above, in front behind the table…
More than an object, a piece of furniture, it is an essential in all our living spaces. The table for eating, for writing, for drawing, for working, for creating, at home, in the office, in the bistro, the changing table, for ironing, the physiotherapist table, the bedside table and the large farm table …
Everywhere, the table is everywhere, multifunctional for some, very specific for others, of all sizes, of all styles, on one leg, on three by four! the rickety tables and the impossible to lift, those where the destinies of peoples are at stake, those which sit in museums and those which are always hidden under tablecloths, oilcloths... A whole era of oilcloths... these tables: never really looked at... What would the tables tell us if they could talk?
What if I added up all these hours spent at the table?!.. Around the table… For the best! But sometimes for the worse...
Banging, celebrating, dancing on the tables! You can even rotate the tables! We can pull the tablecloth and send everything flying, we can stand on the table!
But above all we can TABLE on the table. The table is solid, guaranteed, permanent! It can remain for centuries in the same place, immutable, the table!
NO. NO. The LAET table is quite the opposite.
Laet's little table, the tablilaet, that's what I call it, it's a table that moves. Perched on her wading legs, she would fly... almost... She moves, she can't stand the big books, the piles of files, the thinking elbows, the knocking fists, the big family dishes, the golden dishes and of money, it does not bring together broken families, large tables... No, this table there, the tablilaet, is the intimate table, it carries nothing, it welcomes, just... a hand placed, a cup of tea, an ashtray, a tossed newspaper, the book of the summer, the favorite book, a maxim to meditate... a drink to get drunk! You only need one hand to grab it and presto, there it is on the other side of the sofa! You can choose to look at it or hide it, forget it or move it. She's for you, just for you. And for the one you have invited. It is for the guest, just for him, just for her… It is like a secret to share. It is there without being there, within your reach and you can lend it, take it apart and ship it! You can even… get rid of it! She is a traveler…
And each is a world in itself, sea depths, nebulae, a mental, sensual and shimmering world. Light, colors, splashes of gold, fragments of magma and fragments of cosmos…
Tonight, she is in the spotlight, she is being celebrated, she is even well surrounded, over there in the next room, butterfly, cat, flower and leaf saucer, small black and white containers, very silk rare, curved dress, dream landscapes, horizon landscapes in blue and green shades: well done artists! But the tablilaet, it is not there for eternity, so let's take advantage of it, let's drink, dance and celebrate and... roll under the tables! LA CABANE, Friday July 1, 2022
WRITTEN AND READ BY ISABELLE FOURNIER