Steep slope

Samira Negrouche and Marin Fouqué, fellow 25-26

09.04.2026

Lecture Pente raide, Samira Negrouche et Marin Fouqué © Ville d’Aix-en-Provence

Artists
Marin Fouqué
Samira Negrouche

In response to a proposal by literary resident Marin Fouqué, Villa Medici invites Samira Negrouche for a two-voice, musical reading of their co-written book Steep slope (Pente raide), published in September 2025 by Actes Sud. A dual reading to link two distinct points of exchange between France and Algeria.

With Steep slope, Marin Fouqué and Samira Negrouche dare to engage in a steep dialogue, in which prejudices and possibilities, hopes and misunderstandings, unspoken words and anger collide. Together, they compose a score for two voices that is urgent, frank, courageous and necessary. A link between our two countries.

A presentation of the book is organized in partnership with Librairie Stendhal on Wednesday April 8, in the presence of Marin Fouqué and Samira Negrouche.

“An overpowering sun. A sloping street in the heart of a Mediterranean town.

Two bodies come face to face. He has a knife in his pocket and silence as his baggage. She has the weight of history, and a voice to be heard. She’s Samira. He’s Marin. And since they’re going to meet soon, since they’re going to have to talk to each other, we also have to name the countries: Algeria and France. So, there’s a slope, the sun, the sea. And, from one shore to the other, incessant questioning, violence to be dissected, a never-ending past, the cost of forgiveness and guilt. Yes, there’s everything we can try to say – and listen to.”

Literature

Marin Fouqué

Marin Fouqué (1991, France) is a novelist, poet and performer. A former warehouse worker, passionate about opera singing and English boxing, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Cergy-Pontoise and began interpreting his own texts on stage. Author of 77 (Actes Sud, 2019), G.A.V. (Actes Sud, 2021) and À la terre (XXIbis, 2023), his work has won numerous awards, including the Prix Écrivain from the Fondation Lagardère, the Bourse Jacques Toja from the Théâtre national de la Colline, the Bourse Compose from the CCNC, and the Prix Alain Spiess for best second novel. Regularly invited to present his texts in France and abroad, he currently lives in Seine-Saint-Denis. His first novel is currently being adapted for the theater.

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Literature

Samira Negrouche

Born and living in Algiers, Samira Negrouche is a poet, essayist and translator. Trained as a doctor, she now devotes her time to writing. Interdisciplinary creations are an important part of her career, and over the last three decades she has developed an in-depth relationship with the stage, installation and the visual arts. A major voice of Algerian poetry, she has been translated into some thirty languages. Her publications include À l’ombre de Grenade (Éditions Marty, 2003), Le Jazz des oliviers (Éditions du Tell, 2010), Quai 2I1, partition à trois axes, (Éditions Mazette, 2017) and Traces (Fidel Anthelme X, 2021). She was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in July 2024 and decorated in Algiers the following summer. In 2025, Pente Raide, co-written with Marin Fouqué, is...