Business Happiness
We talk and, in fact, we are talked about. It is the times that speak; its ideology permeates our words and influences our lives. We believe we act and are acted upon. By bringing together in an impressionistic way samples of words from the world of work and its organisation, Ariane Loze creates a show whose strangeness surprises.
The first sentences could make us think of bits of conversations glanced at during a cocktail party, we recognise the contemporary all-entrepreneurship mixed with an ideology of ideal management. Behind these dialogues is a reflection on work, its constraints and the space of freedom that everyone is looking for within the framework that he creates or undergoes. And what about the people who work? Do they talk about work or activity, passion or flexible hours?
Ariane Loze observes, with a precise and profoundly benevolent eye, the world in which we live and reports on it through her voice, her gestures, her body, letting herself be crossed by the words of each and everyone.
As a guest on the set of a film in creation, the spectator discovers different characters coming to life on the stage, being at the same time a film studio. Ariane Loze, playing alternately the different characters in attendance, takes the spectator into a fragmented time, like the rushes of a film.
The play, Business Happiness, also testifies to our relationship with time. How much time do we dedicate to work? How do we envisage the time that remains once a working day is over?
In the 1970s, Ivan Illich, a thinker of political ecology, announced in a precise and impressive way the state of mind of the society in which we live today: "The exchange value of time is taking back the first place, as language shows. We are talking about time spent, saved, invested, wasted, put to good use. Society attaches a price tag to each person that indicates his or her hourly value. The faster we go, the wider the price gap becomes. There is an inverse correlation between equality of opportunity and speed." Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity, Ed. Seuil, 1975.
Are we capable of living at full speed and feeling sensations the same way? How is our self-awareness evolving in the face of this ambition for complete control of our lives, when chance and the vagaries of life often make it the flavour?