Josef Nadj, originaire de Voïvodine, arrive à Paris au début des années 80 et s’inscrit rapidement dans l’univers chorégraphique français. De l’artiste hongrois émigré en France, à l’ambassadeur de la chorégraphie française pour l’Année culturelle France Russie, vingt-cinq ans de circulations ont construit un style reconnaissable, mais peu étudié. Dès ses premières créations, son rôle d’étranger et sa part d’étrangeté trouvent des moyens d’expressions dans son rapport aux origines et à la terre natale. Il présente alors au public des fragments d’histoires privées ou collectives, réelles ou fictives, passées ou présentes. Depuis, il poursuit sa quête identitaire au contact des autres artistes, se confronte à leurs techniques, leurs moyens, leurs influences. Nourris de ces échanges, les processus de création évoluent, le langage gestuel s’affine, les limites de l’espace scéniques sont bousculées, entrainant de nouveaux modes de perception de l’œuvre. Nous avons alors pris le parti de suivre librement le parcours géographique de cet artiste en resserrant l’analyse sur ses créations scéniques et plastiques. Cette recherche, non linéaire, nous aide à saisir les enjeux d’une création multiple, qui ne cesse de déplacer - et de dépasser - la question de l’identité des œuvres et de leurs créateurs. A l’affût des effets de déplacements - dans l’espace et dans le temps – cette thèse permet finalement de réinterroger le parcours de Josef Nadj, dont les apports à la danse contemporaine et à l’art plus généralement contribuent à l’élaboration d’un langage artistique à la fois intime et fédérateur / Josef Nadj, from Vojvodina, arrived in Paris in the early 80s and was quickly enrolled in the French choreographic universe. From the « Hungarian artist » emigrated to France, to the « Ambassador of the French Culture » during the Year choreography for France Russia, twenty-five years of circulations have built a recognizable style, but little studied. From his first creations, his role and his foreign strangeness find ways to share expressions in his report to the origins and native land. He presents to the public fragments of private or collective stories, real or fictional, past or present. Since then, he continues his search for identity connected with other artists, confronting their techniques, their means, their influences. Fed these exchanges, the creative process has evolved, sign language has been refined, the limits of the scenic area had been shaken, causing new work's ways of perception. We then chose to freely follow the geographical journey from this artist tightening analyzing its performing arts and visual creations. This research, a nonlinear one, helps us to understand the issues of multiple creation, which continues to move - and exceed - the question of the identity of the works and their creators. On the lookout of the effects of displacement - in space and time - this thesis finally allows to re-examine the path of Josef Nadj, whose contributions to contemporary dance and art in general contribute to the development of an artistic language that is both intimate and unifying

Quand nous admirons une œuvre d’art nous ne pensons pas forcément au parcours personnel de l’artiste ni à tous les moyens matériels dont il a eu besoin pour la production de son œuvre. Cependant une création artistique est toujours le résultat de l’association de ces deux éléments : de ce que l’artiste est comme personne et de tous les réseaux de production et de distribution de son travail. A travers l’exemple de Josef Nadj, cette thèse cherche à expliquer un chemin de création artistique. Comment Josef Nadj s’est construit et quel était le contexte historique qui a marqué le pays dans lequel il est né et conditionné son œuvre. Quelle est son esthétique et de quelle manière il organise son processus créatif. Finalement, quelles sont les circonstances de son arrivée en France et de son implantation dans les réseaux culturels français qui soutiennent le financement et la distribution de son œuvre. Son histoire est d’autant plus intéressante qu’elle englobe le parcours d’un artiste immigrant qui a obtenu la reconnaissance professionnelle d’abord dans son pays d’adoption, la France. / When we admire an artwork we do not necessarily consider the personal background of the artist and the material means that were required for the production of the artwork. However, every artistic creation is a result of fusion of these two conditions: who the artist is as a person and all the different networks of production and distribution of his work. This thesis is trying to explain, using the example of Josef Nadj’s career, how one’s artistic path can look. What was the historical context of the Josef Nadj’s native country during his life—and even before his birth— and how these circumstances influenced his growing up and later his artistic choices. What do his aesthetics look like and how does he create his pieces. Finally, which circumstances brought him to France and how did he join French cultural networks which later financed and distributed his work. The story of his background and professional career is even more interesting because it sheds light on an artist-immigrant who obtained his professional recognition in his adopted country—France.

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.