5:09 p.m., Esplanade Pierre-Vidal-Naquet, Paris 13.

Mehdi takes a cigarillo break, listening to music on his cellphone. He is a nursing assistant in ENT. I try to do a minute of dance without telling him first. I put my camera right in front of him and I approach. He immediately steps aside, saying, “What are you doing? People are crazy! “. I make amends and explain the project to him. He asks “why didn’t you tell me all this before?” “, I explain that I was trying the surprise effect. It does not work every time :-).

He says :

– you have to talk to people!

– Yes of course I understand. I am talking to you. I did not leave without talking to you.

– This is inappropriate 🙂

– Yes it’s true, I’m sorry, it is not usually done but i tried it 🙂 We can do a minute of dancing if you want now.

– What?

– Yes. Now that you know.

– You women are intriguing!

– Really ? There are no women in general. There are some people.

– You say that men are bullies, that they hit women.

– Again, a lot of men don’t do that at all, happily. We cannot generalize.

– It’s clear one don’t have any honor to do that.

– So do you agree to participate in the minute of the day?

– Okay 🙂

While I dance, something infinitesimal and joyful is woven. Mehdi accompanies me with a few movements. Then he says, laughing, “It’s too weird! ”

Then one of his friends calls him on video, he introduces me, I say hello. Then I show him some pictures. He says “It’s beautiful, what you do.” 

As I leave, wish each other a beautiful evening.