The first writing workshops, for inmates and on which composer Thierry Machuel, in residence at Clairvaux, collaborated, were initiated in 2008 by the 'Ombres et...

The first writing workshops, for inmates and on which composer Thierry Machuel, in residence at Clairvaux, collaborated, were initiated in 2008 by the 'Ombres et lumières' festival and continued in 2009. That year, the monks of Cîteaux also agreed to write in response to the prisoners, thereby recreating the double vocation of Clairvaux: abbey and prison. The group of texts was thus set to music following numerous exchanges. This artistic adventure is related in Or, les murs, the documentary by Julien Sallé, filmed within the prison itself and offering the inmates a rare opportunity for self-expression. It is my pleasure to invite you to see and hear one of the finest proofs that art and culture can restore to everyone the human dignity to which every man is entitled.