Script

1. Prelude: The countdown
The performance begins at the same time at each location. Dancers punctuate the last seconds of the countdown.

2. Overture: Hymn to the night
One and the same large piece of music is sung and played by the choirs and orchestras at all four locations. 

3. Act one: Birth of the Interpreter
The same language is spoken everywhere. People are convinced of themselves and their power. They want to build higher and higher, conquer space and achieve immortality. In the blink of an eye, the people of Babel are punished for their arrogance. They suddenly speak a multitude of languages and no longer understand themselves. The building collapses. Disagreements and fights break out. Fortunately, the translator or interpreter is invented. The punishment is thwarted! The people find their cohesion in diversity. They form a cheerful final picture. This Swiss variation on the myth of the Tower of Babel is performed in the form of a pantomime at all four locations.

4. Interlude: Chanson Polyglotte
Nevertheless, the Flying Jurassien cuts through the waves at high speed. Several sirens follow the ship. Its captain Odysseus sings in several languages about the joy of movement, the flowing water and the pleasure of the senses and words.

5. Interlude: Song of the Sirens
The sirens appear in a sea or land ballet in all four places. They are fish women, bird women and flower women. Strange music comes from Murten, where Lilith and her musicians have chosen to sing.

6. Act two: To the honour of man
This act is different at every Arteplage site. It serves to dramatise and concretise the theme of each Arteplage.

6. Act two: To the honour of man - Arteplage Neuchâtel
In Neuchâtel (Nature and Artificiality), the sculptor Prometheus has decided to invent and produce humans with the help of his brother Epimetheus. The mermaids observe and comment on this event. Prometheus uses fire to breathe life into his clay sculptures. They immediately learn to move, walk and live. But the Promethean men are lonely. Prometheus decides to invent companions for them. He creates Pandora, the most beautiful woman in existence, out of golden clay. She immediately seduces Epimetheus. Io, a young woman who has been transformed into a heifer, comes along. She flees from the terrible gadfly who is chasing her. She tells Prometheus of her misfortune. He comforts her by prophesying that after a long journey she will become a woman again and give birth to a hero. But then the gadfly appears, Io loses her senses again and flees into the night. Prometheus is also seduced by the beautiful Pandora. He takes the form of her brother and spends a night with her. But Epimetheus is back. He passionately seizes his fiancée, who is impressed by so much power! Humanity, created by the artificiality of Prometheus, has found its naturalness. It celebrates and dances. Prometheus is punished for this invention. This part is performed in the style of a satirical drama.

6. Act two: To the honour of man - Arteplage Biel-Bienne
It is in Biel (Power and Liberty) that Prometheus is punished. The sirens swim around the rock to which he has been chained. A group of sympathisers express their solidarity for the prisoner. Io, the young woman who has been turned into a heifer, comes swimming up and escapes her tormentor, the gadfly, for a moment. She recounts the abuse to which she has fallen victim. Prometheus tells her that at the end of her torment she will regain her female form and give birth to a magnificent offspring. The gadfly appears and Io goes mad again. Hermes arrives in a motorboat. He is booed by the Sirens. He advises Prometheus to stop siding with the humans and to be more conciliatory towards the higher powers. The prisoner flatly rejects any compromise and mocks the divine messenger. A new punishment is immediately announced. Thunderclaps and lightning. The sirens flee. The rock slowly sinks into the depths of the floods and swallows Prometheus and his last words. This part is played out in the style of a rock drama.

6. Act two: To the honour of man - Arteplage Murten-Morat
In Murten (Instant and Eternity), Lilith and her sirens pull a young boy, who is a storyteller, out of the water. He is dismayed by the encounter he has just had with the centaur Chiron, another benefactor of mankind. He has been badly wounded by an arrow, but as he is immortal, he cannot die. Then he appears, tortured a thousand times over. Lilith and her music-making sirens sing the lament of good Chiron. Io passes by and escapes for a moment from the pursuit and the stings of the brake. The Little Storyteller and Lilith recount the touching encounter between the centaur and the heifer. But then the gadfly appears, Io loses her senses again and disappears into the night. Lilith and the Little Narrator tell of the barter between Chiron's immortality and Prometheus' mortality. Now immortal, he resumes his fight for mankind. The centaur Chiron can finally die. He sinks into the floods, accompanied by the song of Lilith and her sirens. This part is performed in the spirit of a dramatic narrative.

6. Act two: To the honour of man - Arteplage Yverdon-les-Bains and the Arteplage Mobile du Jura.
In Yverdon-les-Bains (Me and the Universe), Prometheus steals fire from the gods to make it accessible to humans, who must never give up. In this way, he creates a triumphalist civilisation and culture. A large fresco tells of the emergence of professions and trades, of the takeover of culture over nature. People are gripped by a frenzy of discovery, a mania for conquest. All spaces are explored, inside and out. The world is populated by jugglers. Spotlights search the sky, acrobats defy the laws of gravity. The seven senses (taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch, skin and kinaesthetic senses) move through the air in the form of giant organs - a mouth, an ear, a piece of skin, etc. - through the air. Riders demonstrate their mastery of the beast. The giant shadow of Prometheus rules his universe from the famous cloud. Enter Io, the young woman who has been transformed into a heifer. She swims in the Zihl, fleeing from her terrible gadfly. The sirens rush to her and surround her. Prometheus appears in a jet of flame and sympathises with her: the god dances with the harassed woman. Suddenly the gadfly appears and Io disappears into the night. The Flying Jura emerges from the same night and docks in the canal. The Arteplage Mobile du Jura (Meaning and Motion) comes to a standstill. Its captain, Odysseus the adventurer, sings of the dizziness and joys of the journey. His ship is his home! Prometheus welcomes Odysseus, but the adventurer must set off again on other adventures. This part is designed as a pantomime and dance fresco.

7. Interlude: The three lakes
This is a musical moment of calm. The orchestras from the four locations play together. Light effects make the water flow through all possible moods.

8. Act three: The genius and the spirit of the locations
Groups of musicians, singers, dancers, puppeteers, actors and various professional groups express the special genius and spirit of the four cities hosting Expo.02.

9. Interlude: Song of the Canton of Jura
Ulysses dedicates a song to the canton that finally found its independence in the twentieth century. Images appear in the large window located in each of the venues, allowing the audience to dream and travel to another place.

10. Interlude: Les Guignols de l'Expo (The Punch and Judy Show of the Expo)
Large puppets talk to each other through the large window. They are a satirical reminder of the painful and adventurous history of the Expo. A kind of exorcism.

11. Finale: The joy of beginning
This is the moment of the opening gesture of Expo.02. Once again we see images of the official ceremony. The figures that have characterised the four venues come together. A short, brilliant fireworks display concludes the opening spectacle.