La vie est une fête
Oélia Gouret & Lucas Ballester
2021

Gatherings and physical contacts are prohibited. We are no longer allowed to party. What does the absence of this provoke? The documentary or docu-fiction La vie est une fête (Life is a Party, 2021), by Oélia Gouret and Lucas Ballester, gathers audio testimonies of people of their close or remote circle about their overall relationship with partying, but also about the repercussions the present situation can have on this relationship. Or again on the strategies used to get together despite everything. At the same time the artists film performances with a common device related to these sound reflections. The film object leads to questions like the political stakes of free partying as well as the increasing state and police repression.

Oélia Gouret lives and works between Paris and Geneva. Graduated from the Work.Master at HEAD – Genève in 2022, she then joins several collectives that take part in the organization of exhibitions (Argent Facile in Geneva) and parties or music/film/radio festivals. She has been making films and participating in numerous fanzine publications since 2016. Her work has been presented in various festivals in Geneva, Dijon, Nantes, Paris and Montreal. She participated in the collective exhibition Lemaniana at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève.

Lucas Ballester lives and works in Geneva. He is presently doing a Master’s in Visual Arts, Work.Master at HEAD – Genève. His work was presented in the Grand Tour organized by HEAD – Genève in 2020. The same year he composed music for the film Supreme (2020) by Youssef Youssef. In 2021, he participated in the collective exhibition Lemaniana at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève with the film La vie est une fête which was later presented at Galerie Treize (Paris) and Weissfalk (Basel). More recently he took part in Marseille Together at Burlopolis (Marseille).