Border surveillance and reducing migrant flow: such were the objectives of the experimental research project TALOS, as endorsed by the European Union. Officially running from 2008 to 2013, it enabled the development of a semi-autonomous robotic device capable of rapid deployment. Reacting against this deplorable machine, which did not progress beyond the research and development phase, Arkadi Zaïdes has, since 2016, surrounded himself with a group of choreographers, playwrights, and videographers. With them, he aims to explore our relationship with the Other in a society set on restricting the free movement of people, and to examine the purpose of a system which facilitates it. The product of such observations is a performance in which the artist surrenders body and movement to the four winds; caught between obedience to—and transgression of—the rules imposed by this type of endeavour.

The performance will be followed by a debate with Michel Lussault, géographe, professeur d'études urbaines Université de Lyon (Ecole Supérieure de Lyon), directeur de l’Ecole urbaine de Lyon (Lauréat programme Instituts convergence, CGI)