Centre Stage.

Come January 1, Serge Laurent can quit is wandering ways. Having made his name with the "Soiress Nomedes" at the Fondation Cartier, Laurent was recently appointed director in charge of spectacles vivants at the Pompidou and will head up the institution's new series of live choreography, theater, and music. The thirty eight-year-old curator drew acclaim for his Cartier program, in which he invited young choreographers, musicians, and stage directors of all stripes to present their work; these evenings soon became forums for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration. Having recently organized Dijon's "Festival Nouvelles Scenes" as well as a new "Soirees Nomades" series for the Printemps de Cahors, Laurent sat down to discuss his vision of live performance and his curatorial plans for the revamped Pompidou.

Valerie Breuvart: How do you go about putting together a program? What are your criteria, and, more generally, how would you define your line of work?

Serge Laurent: I work out programming based on the particular constraints of the situation: First, I study the programming in the visual arts, then the space, which for me is very important. At the Fondation Cartier, I worked with the artists on-site, with works of art on view. But I don't necessarily try to respond to the works; I would never insist that a dancer conceive a performance that had to take into account the works in a space. The awareness of what is possible interests me, because I demand great freedom in my work.

At the Fondation Cartier, when I worked on what became known as the "Soirees Nomades"--a project [Cartier founder] Marie-Claude Beaud entrusted to me because of my interest in music--I chose to broaden the scope of these evenings to include other kinds of live performance, even though I knew less about them. I began to investigate in various directions and to program the first evenings without really knowing exactly where they would go. I have always worked intuitively, driven by curiosity. For the Pompidou, I did not offer a program; they recruited a person, a profile, and I'm curious myself to see what will come of this alchemy. VB: Have the reputation of the Centre Pompidou and the exhibitions taking place there influenced your programming plans? SL: [Pompidou director] Jean-Jacques Aillagon wanted my programming to be a space of convergence for all the Centre's activities. I've developed a successive set of three programs, which involve choreography, theater, and performance, as well as techno music and fashion.

The programming is meant to serve two aims: to show the artist's work and to nourish the artist. I am delighted when I see an artist discover and feel supported by another artist. I hope the programming will have the effect of self-renewal and will function as an artists' workshop of sorts. In addition to presenting a finished work to the public, I'm interested in bringing the audience face to face with the process of creation. In this sense, improvisations please me: I love that the audience, instead of finding a work imposed on it by the artist, becomes aware of the work's mutability through the "work-in-progress" sessions. Having had the chance to participate in these creations, I want the public to enjoy a relation to them similar to my own, because above all I am a spectator like them.