The witness

mardi 17 mars 2026
à 13:00
Conversation
Amphithéâtre

With Le témoin, Joy Sorman continues, this time through fiction, her exploration of our ‘clichés’—those that tell the story of the world and cast a harsh, piercing light on the society in which we live. In this novel tinged with reality, the author imagines a man named Bart breaking into the Paris courthouse and deciding to live there clandestinely. Hiding in the ceiling at night and roaming the courtrooms by day, he witnesses the spectacle of justice – or is it rather that of injustice? But why did Bart leave his life behind and orchestrate his disappearance? What is he seeking in this uninhabitable place?

Joy Sorman is a writer. In Le témoin, she offers a deep dive into a building, the High Court, which is both a republican institution and a contemporary monument that expresses the relationship our society maintains—or believes it maintains—with justice. The author’s literary work, particularly her precise use of the various spaces within this setting, reveals what the space says about the social relationships that form there.

Series
Organised by architects and lecturers Gwenaëlle d'Aboville and David Enon, the Tuesday Lessons series Fictions: Other Worlds invites us to listen to writers who construct fictions, much like architects do when designing projects.