RADIO THAT MATTERS – MAUD BLANDEL & Flavio Virzì

Maud Blandel, Flavio Virzì and ASLAA,

La vraie version (The Real Version)
 

‘During our encounters, we seek to bear witness to the voices that have marked our lives, both spoken and sung, to revive these voices through our own, but also to invent ways of restoring a song that has been kept secret from the listener: through our descriptions, our translations and our different forms of interpretation’. - Maud Blandel

Choreographer Maud Blandel, composer and guitarist Flavio Virzì and members of ASLAA - Association Sports et Loisirs pour Aveugles et Amblyopes have joined forces to create a radio piece exploring the relationship between voice, memory and emotion. At the crossroads of sound research, the performing arts and a reflection on the accessibility of works for the visually impaired, La vraie version is part of the European Radio That Matters project. In this project, artists, radio stations and associations for the visually impaired are invited to work together to create innovative artistic forms that make the festival experience and content accessible to all.

The radio creations were followed by a public conversation about the project and broadcasted live on Radio Grenouille. In partnership with GMEM - Centre national de création musicale and Radio Grenouille with the support of Centre culturel suisse. On tour with El Hadi Guidoum, Cherifa Harzallah, Angélique Huguenin, Karim Maameri, Karim Slaoui and Janine Williams from ASLAA — Association Sports et Loisirs des Aveugles et Amblyopes.

written, directed and edited by Maud Blandel and Flavio Virzì
musical creation and mixing Flavio Virzì
lighting design Edouard Hügli

production Radio That Matters, Festival Parallèle, I L K A

residencies GMEM - Centre national de création musicale, Euphonia l’Atelier-Studio, Radio Grenouille

thanks to Marie Féréol, Olympe Verdeil-Novara, Jean-Baptiste Imbert, Elodie Olson-Coons, Maya Masse, Louis Schild, Lello and Sonja Horlacher, ASLAA (Association Sports et Loisirs pour Aveugles et Amblyopes) and the GMEM team.

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Maud Blandel (FR/CH) is a choreographer based in Lausanne. Trained in Toulouse, then at La Manufacture and HEAD, she founded the I L K A association in 2015. Driven by her passion for musicality and dramaturgy, her choreographic approach explores physicality and states of presence resulting from a constant tension between the collective and individual expressivity. A resident at Arsenic (Lausanne) since 2018, she is an associate artist at CNDC Angers and Bonlieu – Scène nationale d’Annecy for 2024-2026.

Flavio Virzì (born 1984, Palermo) is a guitarist and composer. Trained in classical guitar at the Palermo Conservatory and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he later studied contemporary music at the Basel Music Academy. His adventurous approach leads him to diverse repertoires and collaborations across disciplines. He has performed with ensembles such as Ictus, Contrechamps, and Staatsoper Hamburg. His compositions blend microtonal harmonies, non-European traditions, and improvisation. Published by Wergo and Stradivarius, he has collaborated with Maud Blandel since 2021, on the re-creation of Diverti Menti, the sound creation of L’œil nu (2023) and the radio piece La vraie version (2025) which he co-signed.

The non-profit Association Sports et Loisirs pour Aveugles et Amblyopes, created in 1973, aims to promote sports and cultural activities for people with visual impairments. While the integration of the visually impaired is not always possible in schools and workplaces, the association strives to promote it through sports and leisure activities. Cross-country and tandem skiing activities, in addition to the sporting aspect, have a significant educational contribution: it requires the blind person to have qualities that are essential for their mobility-reflexes, flexibility, sense of direction, knowing how to overcome apprehension, feeling the terrain, and having great confidence in oneself and in others.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.