The sun is already high and hard, this morning of June 16, when the black concrete Stadium of Rudy Ricciotti stands before us. Below, the roar of the highways. Not far away, a dried up area with a car wreck. Everywhere, on this miniplanet Mars, the red mud of Gardanne, the bauxite which is still used in the manufacture of bricks. It is in this space that has been deserted for more than twenty years that the Festival d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence has chosen to inaugurate its 74e editing. On the program, the Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler – entitled “Resurrection” – staged by the Italian Romeo Castellucci under the direction of the Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, at the head of the Choir and the Orchestra of Paris.
The paved esplanade is still flanked by its single bare metal palm tree, while the austere entrance to the building in the shape of a huge ventilator seems to illustrate the infernal warning of The Divine Comedy of Dante- “You who enter, leave behind all hope. » On either side, three sentry boxes seem to have been shattered by hammer blows: the ticket offices crowded with spectators who had come for a match by the star handball team OM Vitrolles, a concert by IAM, Bashung or Noir Désir. Philippe Delcroix, the technical director of the festival, remembers with emotion this July 25, 2019 when the belly of the Stadium reopened under the cry of the grinders. “We felt a bit like tomb discoverers, he says. Everything had been walled up, the doors welded together. We arrived with a generator, machines, and we entered. »
The building has been the prey of looters, parties, test track for school trucks or motorcycle rodeos
Inside, total black. And indescribable chaos. It will not take more to Pierre Audi, the director of the festival, to say: ” It’s here ! » By the light of cellphones, the men advance cautiously, climbing the stairs on all fours amid rubble, graffiti and filth. The building has been the prey of looters, parties, test track for school trucks or motorcycle rodeos, finally squatted for three years by travelers (no less than 400 caravans). Everything was completely stripped – what could sell was. « Welcome in Hell »challenges a tag in the smashed locker room.
Energie collective
Since the acquisition of his Almeida Theater in London, the year of his 20th birthday, Pierre Audi has always looked for new places. Director of the very avant-garde Holland Festival from 2005 to 2014, he will take over industrial wastelands such as the vast Gashouder de Westergasfabriek, a gasometer built in 1902 in Amsterdam. It is also under this label that the Stadium will be reopened to the public. Or bringing a second category ERP (establishment open to the public) up to standard, for a capacity of 1,500 people, the cost of rehabilitation of which currently amounts to 1.4 million euros, taken into 20% borne by the city and the metropolis, 30% by the region and the State.
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