“There are countless stories in the world.” Roland Barthes
Stories are everywhere: they shape the way we see the world, fuel our desires, influence our decisions, and guide our behaviors. In this context, storytelling has become a cultural and political imperative. Why Stories is a research laboratory entirely dedicated to the arts of storytelling. It supports anyone who wishes to use narrative as a catalyst for creation, critical thinking, and action. Its mission is simple: to give everyone the means to tell the world with accuracy, complexity, and imagination.
This intensive three-month program is built on a teaching approach that brings together the arts, the humanities, and contemporary narrative practices. It provides participants with the tools to understand the world through the stories that shape it—and to imagine new ones. Because storytelling is an act that shapes the way we live together, Why Stories regards narrative as a common good and a civic practice. By making the tools of storytelling accessible to as many people as possible, it helps foster narratives that expand the realm of possibility, enrich democratic debate, and ultimately transform the way we understand, think about, and act in the world.
WHY STORIES PROGRAM
A project by Luca Giacomoni and Andrea Zubialde
In collaboration with Sarah Di Bella and Didier Austry, associate artists
Contributors: musician and composer Othman Louati, visual artist Nour Awada, sociologist Fabien Truong, exhibition curator Jeanne Barral, journalist Charlotte Bienaimé, photographer Jean-Louis Courtinat, screenwriter Emmanuelle Sardou, hypnotherapist Pierre-Alain Perez, actresses Valérie Dréville and Laëtitia Eïdo, coach Marie-Charlie Pignon, actors Yoshi Oida and Brontis Jodorowsky, writers Marielle Macé and Émilie Houssa, documentary filmmaker Matthieu Chatelier, author and theatre director Gérard Watkins
With the support of the City of Paris, Le Labo de l’Édition, Paris & Co, France Active, Paris Initiative Entreprise, La Fabrique de la Danse, La Paillasse, Convergences, France Travail, AFDAS, Illusion & Macadam, Créatis, and La Gaîté Lyrique