Born in 1970, Philippe Quesne was educated in fine arts at the École Estienne and then at the Arts décoratifs in Paris. For 10 years he worked as a director and stage designer for theatre and opera, and created various exhibitions.

In 2003, he put on his first show, The Itching of the Wings (“La Démangeaison des ailes”), with the Vivarium Studio company. As a child the artist collected bugs and raised stick insects: He “campaigns for a theatre of observation”, immersing his actors, whose evolution he watches like an entomologist, in various ecosystems: a small apartment in The Serge Effect (“L’Effet de Serge”) (2007), the cosmos in Big Bang (2011), wetlands in Swamp Club (2013).

Since 2014, Philippe Quesne has been head of the Nanterre-Amandiers National Drama Centre.

Since 2003, Philippe Quesne has built a unique oeuvre, between the theatre and fine arts, full of the poetry of little things and an ironic melancholy. Less spoken than visual, each play is a sensory experience. He sometimes conjures up pyrotechnic effects (flames, smoke bombs, lasers), transforming the stage into an experimental field or theatre of installations.

From a failed rock band in a snowy clearing (The Melancholy of Dragons (“La Mélancolie des dragons”), 2008), to moles turning their underground gallery into a concert hall (Night of the Moles (“La Nuit des taupes”), 2016), Philippe Quesne invites his spectators to enter parallel universes, where characters, materials, light and music create strange, fantastical scenes.

With Caspar Western Friedrich in 2016, he turned towards the mythical universe of the Western and German romanticism, creating fascinating landscapes.

Philippe Quesne's plays cross both borders and theatre walls.

In Nanterre-Amandiers, in May 2015, Philippe Quesne thus staged a simulation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, The Negotiation Theatre (“Le Théâtre des négociations”), a group creation involving 200 students from all over the world. Welcome to Caveland! involved the participation of Thai actor and film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul for an immersive experience, Fever Room, a combination of an art installation and a cinema.