Nimis Groupe

The Nimis group is a collective of actresses and actors brought together by the need to question the migration policies of the European Union.

Before embarking on the creation of a performance, the group conducted three years of workshop and documentation work.

We met with people involved in migration issues at different levels: lawyers, activists, civil servants and European parliamentarians, lawyers, researchers, social workers, asylum seekers in open centers or detained in closed centers.

Nimis originated from a "Prospero" exchange between students of the Conservatoire de Liège and the National Theatre of Brittany. We noticed this: Europe funds programs for us to meet but also spends money to erect barriers against the rest of the world. We conducted an investigation to try to understand. Through meetings and workshops (Migreurop network, ULg, Red Cross Reception Centre in Bierset...), the NIMIS group tested its research on stage. Some preconceptions disappeared and other questions arose. Meeting with asylum seekers, their need to publicly express what they experience, the joy shared together sealed our determination to write a performance with them.

It's because the documentary research led the group to human encounters that the theater began. From then on, we do everything possible to continue working with asylum seekers. The burning current events they are dealing with is one of the strengths of our argument. This reality will be a major issue in the writing.

During these meetings, each of us felt destabilized in our relationship to the world. Without being militant or manichean, this experience calls upon what makes us men and women: moral discernment and the commitment to a better life. It is this experience that we would like to share.