Bibliothèque Pascal

Mona, a single mother of Romanian and Hungarian origins, provides a convoluted provides social workers with a convoluted explanation as to why she left her young daughter. "Convoluted" in this case is not an empty metaphor: her story is a dark, unsettling, and detailed account of how she met the father of her child, her journey to the West, her arrest and illegal employment, imprisonment, and how she finally ended up in a London sex club where the workers took on the roles of characters from classic literature. In the eponymous Bibliothèque, members of Britain's jaded high society can have some naughty fun with Mother Courage, the Little Prince, or Lolita. Truth mixes with fiction, and this visually extraordinary work takes the well-worn tale of the unfortunate prostitute to surprising places. Using conventions from operas and music videos-it is not difficult to see echoes of Fellini or Gilliam-this turns out to be an original way to discussing relations between Eastern and Western Europe that are consistently filled with tension, mutual fascination, and exploitation.