ARCHIVE

L’indomptable, an experimental radio essay made for Radio France's Atelier de Création Radiophonique in collaboration with Allen S. Weiss, centers on an exploration of artist Michel Nedjar’s extraordinary mixed media dolls. Nedjar’s voice opens the essay with a rhythmic list in response to the question: what is a doll? Answer: “Something strange, something from the shadows, something from the earth, something from the beginning, something magical, something forbidden, something from God, something from far away, something without eyes, something animal, something birdlike, something silent, something eternal, something from the end, something vegetable, something from childhood, something cruel, something joyful, something screamlike, something unspoken.” That list might also provide an excellent description for radio art! The title descends from a short story by renowned author Chantal Thomas, who provided her own reading of the text, together with reflections on the presence and power of dolls in her own childhood.