For three singers and nine instrumentalists

Ensemble LES ILLUMINATIONS
Benjamin Attahir – Composition and Musical Direction
Isabelle Junca and Aurélie Allexandre d’Albronn – Libretto

Cast
Joël Terrin – The Architect
Julie Mathevet – Poetry
Aimery Lefèvre – Destiny

Musicians
Aurélie Allexandre d’Albronn – Cello and Artistic Direction
Romain Falik – Archlute
Cyprien Noisette – Percussion
Coline Jaget – Harp
Florian Gazagne – Bassoon and Flutes
Mathilde Neugebauer Zofia – Transverse Flute
Vianney Desplantes – Saxhorn/Flugabone
Albéric Boullenois · Hanna Salzenstein – Cello

Excerpt from Le Jardin d’Afrique (Editions Al Manar):
“One day, a man, from these countless horrors,
became the artisan-gravedigger.
He said no to indifference—that which withers
olive trees at war, even winter’s oil.
That which seeps—the earth unwilling, bearing fruit hard as stone.”

It begins with the evocation of an ecumenical cemetery in Zarzis, Tunisia, created by the multifaceted artist Rachid Koraïchi. The beauty of this “Garden of Paradise,” inaugurated in June 2021 by Audrey Azoulay, struck writer Isabelle Junca.

Rachid, a true Sufi mystic, recounts his actions after learning of a dump—dubbed the Cemetery of the Unknown—where bodies of migrants who died at sea washed ashore. The painter, engraver, and ceramist, a graduate of Algiers’ Fine Arts School and Paris’ Arts Décoratifs, bought farmland near the site and began constructing Le Jardin d’Afrique. Designed to expand and receive new graves, the garden-cemetery, already half-full shortly after its opening, is now under UNESCO protection. A “haven of fraternity and humanity,” it welcomes all faiths, intertwining symbols: graves surrounded by twelve vines (Christian Apostles) and five olive trees (Islam’s Pillars), with a prayer hall crowned by three ceramic spheres (representing monotheistic religions).

Benjamin Attahir, a laureate of numerous competitions, was nominated for Victoires de la Musique Classique (2019, 2021). His works are performed by ensembles like the Staatskapelle Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Helsinki Philharmonic.

Les Illuminations is in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation, supported by the Lyra Foundation, HAPLOTÈS Fund, and Caisse des Dépôts.