Le Banquet de l’Amitié is the first artwork in the series of Banquets imagined and realized by Françoise Schein and the association Inscrire.

It is the continuation of two projects, Les Murmures, created for the façade of the Médiathèque des Mureaux in 2009 and Le Val de Seine installed in the tunnel of the Gare SNCF des Mureaux railway station in 2011.

This first banquet-artwork was designed by Françoise Schein, assisted by the philosopher Nadine Dupont-Monteyne and created with the participation of the residents of Les Mureaux and Meulan, a nearby town on the other side of the Seine.

We used philosophy (philosophical discussion, questioning, concept) and art tools to ask residents about the clear evidence of a complex and universal ritual – the founding ritual of all humanity: to eat. What do we share when we eat together? What do we share when we ask each other questions, when we talk about a dish?

Participant workshops were organized around the theme of meals. Each participant created and painted “his” plate, all of which are in dialogue with each other, around a connecting element, an urban intestine, a winding line, which evoked the time of “citizen digestion” and runs through the table. Both disparate and unified, the plate artworks are interpretations of what it means to live together and eat together.

Inspired by the works of philosophers Matthew Lipman and Michel Tozzi, the atelier Philo has taken up the challenge of working and thinking with everyone, from 7 to 77 years old, from all social and cultural backgrounds.

Françoise Schein
Nadine Monteyne
Omar Camara
Mathilde Delcambre

Virginia, Annick, Chris, Christine, Prisca, Omar, Geneviève, Margot, Gloria, Huguette, Jean, Jeanne, Abou, Fatima, Alexandra, Cécile, Lucas, Nicolas, Brahim, Sabrina, Rougui, Baptiste, Dany, Isabelle, Nadine, Mathilde, Marie-Paule, Nimouy, Orianne, Lohana, Jean-François, Monique, El Hadj Sidi, Alain, Mireille, Odette, Anne, Jean-Louis, Sodo, Yves

Marianne Cantau
Cécile Fernandez

Ville des Mureaux

Françoise Schein
Nadine Monteyne
Omar Camara