Mohamed El Khatib: "Young people don't even want to hear about the sexual and love life of old people"

BarcelonaSince his debut in 2021 at the Grec Festival with Finir en beauté, French creator Mohamed El Khatib has shown his sensitivity for bringing to the stage stories that remain in the shadows of society. The artist now returns to Barcelona with La vie secrète des vieux, a show about desire and love in old age that has been performed at the Avignon Festival and will now be at the Teatre Lliure from this Wednesday to Saturday.

The spark for the show comes from the pandemic period, when nursing homes were completely closed and it was impossible to say goodbye to the residents. "They were dying by the hundreds, disappearing without being able to leave us any kind of transmission," recalls El Khatib. Faced with this situation, when the restrictions eased, he began research through interviews with the elderly. In one of those conversations, a person told him that they had a new partner at the residence. "They gave me a lot of sexual details and I felt quite uncomfortable. Then I asked myself why this made me feel that way and I came to the conclusion that it is a blind spot in society. Young people don't even want to hear about the sexual and romantic lives of the elderly," points out the creator.

La vie secrète des vieux has been built from the testimonies collected by the artist in meetings at about twenty French residences. "When I asked them about their emotional lives, they always told me that the problem was their children, who prevented them from experiencing new love stories. It's like Romeo and Juliet, but in reverse," claims El Khatib. As he has done in previous shows, the artist decided that he would work with non-professional performers and that the interviewees themselves would tell their situations on stage. "We often consider the elderly a burden or a weight. It was important that they speak in the first person to show that they are also a political and social resource," says the artist.

A "living and fragile" work

After the research and creation of the staging, El Khatib managed to gather ten performers on stage. Two of them are no longer here – one was 101 years old when he died, the other 96 – but the rest have wanted to continue with the show. "They remember them on stage. It's a very lively and at the same time very fragile work. One of them sums it up very well by explaining that every time he makes love, he thinks it might be the last time," points out El Khatib, who adds that the show "is cheerful and fun" because the participants "say things as they are, without any concern for the gaze of others".

In parallel with this show, the Teatre Lliure has taken advantage of El Khatib's visit to Barcelona to propose an artistic initiative linked to the city. It is Project Casa, a project he has carried out together with the Sant Gervasi Residential First Welcome Centre for homeless people. For a week, El Khatib has been accompanied by photographer Yohanne Lamoulère, illustrator Bonnefrite, and author and screenwriter Elsa Broclain, and has spoken with residents of the centre to create an exhibition that will be inaugurated this Friday at the same venue.

"We asked them what photograph they would like to take, what they would like to talk about, and we stood by their side to build it. It's a game of mutual exchange in which everyone wins," explains El Khatib. This work exemplifies his way of conceiving art: "I dedicate myself to creating shows, but what interests me most is the work off stage, in places that are not priori welcoming to art. In this case, it's about working with people who, despite their precariousness, we must see with dignity".