Ophélie Mercier

Ophélie Mercier is a PhD candidate in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University (Belgium) and member of the Centre Marc Bloch, in Berlin, where she is based. In her PhD, she is exploring the life trajectories of Egyptian artists exiled in Europe, focusing on the reconfigurations of their artistic practices and looking at the transnational dynamics of the production and distribution of their art works.

She graduated from Sciences Po Rennes and obtained a master in Conflict, Violence and Development at SOAS where she completed her thesis on theatre as a form of resistance in Palestine, doing ethnographic fieldwork with the Freedom Theatre. Later, she worked as an artist and cultural practitioner. First, in Cairo, from 2013-16 she was a member of the collective Outa Hamra as a street clown performer and social theatre practitioner. Then, she coordinated an international network for youth and social circus where she conducted research on circus as intercultural encounter.

Publications

• Expériences Théâtrales à Alexandrie Auprès de Population Locale et Réfugiée : Un Éveilleur de Conscience Politique?, In EGYPTE/MONDE ARABE, vol. 15, 2017, pp. 125–46, doi:10.4000/ema.3672.

• Devenir étranger »: La transformation du rapport au corps comme levier de conversion de l’engagement politique en exil, in Exil et politique, Marie Bassi et al. (eds.), Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu (Forthcoming).