Sébastien KHEROUFI
Stage director

Sébastien received a creation grant to help him with his play Par les Villages.

What is your artistic background ?
I grew up in the working-class districts of the Hauts-de-Seine and the Emmaüs hostels in Paris, brought up between my mother's French culture and my father's Algerian culture. After completing a school training in mechanics and working for several years as a garage mechanic, cleaner, kitchen porter and bus driver, I entered the École Supérieure d'Art Dramatique de Paris. At the end of my studies, I acted in Peer Gynt, directed by Anne-Laure Liégeois at the Théâtre du Peuple in Bussang, as well as in productions by Louisa Chas and Marie Mahé. In film, I regularly work with filmmakers of my generation. In 2022, I was one of the winners of the Ateliers Médicis and took part in the 6th edition of Création en Cours, as well as the TRANSAT festival. I also assisted Anne-Laure Liégeois for the inaugural weekend of the refurbished Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Since the beginning of 2023, I have been working with La Colline - Théâtre National and a French language support class for pupils newly arrived in France and allophones in Seine-Saint-Denis. In June 2023, I presented my first stage production, Antigone, at the Théâtre du Soleil during the Départ d'Incendies festival, as well as my first performance, Outrage au Public, at the Centre Pompidou. In January 2024, I created the 2nd chapter of my triptych, Par les Villages, by Peter Handke, at the Théâtre des Quartiers d'Ivry, where I am associate artist, in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, which also hosted the project. In spring 2024, I will be writing the 3rd chapter of the triptych as part of my residency at the Villa Medici in Rome.

How do you view your profession today ?
I view it with a luminous gaze. Like a lighthouse on the open sea. The necessary light in today's darkness. Despite the storms of the past and those to come, we must strive to continue to illuminate the world, with art as the essential light of our society, again and again.
With an unhinged gaze. The need to take different paths in order to look at those who have never benefited from the warmth of the spotlight.
And I view it also with a poetic look. Poetry as a beacon, again and again.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I hope to be sympathetic, alive, and poetically cheeky.

This interview was conducted in 2024​
Photography credit : Lys Arango 2024