Between the transhumanist fantasy of conquering death, the need to mourn and the medical asepticisation of the end of life, death seems to want to disappear from our lives. And yet we continue to die. The memory of the departed continues to haunt us. Where have our ghosts gone? Are they trapped in the limbo of Dante’s Divine Comedy or the depths of a Facebook profile?

Hiboux is a modern mass that explores our perception of mourning. Three musicians/actors examine our relationship with the dead, inviting the audience to delve into a world where the living and the dead try to figure out how to coexist. Hiboux explores death, beliefs, rites and ceremonies, spiritualism, the past and the future, immortality and eternity with touching humour. It also features the collective burial of a spectator, discussions with Gilles Deleuze, Thomas Edison and Victor Hugo, and an encounter with the ghost that we are to become.

Hiboux is presented as part of La Vilaine Frayeur. The Ateliers du Vent artists’ collective looks at the other side of the grave to create a cultural event focusing on death. The programme from October 26 to 31 includes Mange, t’es mort, installations and tasting experiences by L’atelier du ventre, Café Mortel by Coopérative Funéraire de Rennes, Figurec by Mange ! & Cie, 38 hussards au fond d’un tiroir by Régis Guigand, un Bal de la mort and other performances and concerts.