Dan Acher left spectators speechless at the Les Tombées de la Nuit festival with Borealis, a surprising northern lights display illuminating the Rennes sky this summer. Drawing on the relationship we have developed with this Swiss artist, we are proposing a first showing of his new project: an installation of a circle of giant wooden letters in the city centre, spelling out the word “SECRETS”. For five days, we will be invited to share our deepest hidden secrets, anonymously and in writing, and to read the passions and regrets of those around us. Then, at nightfall on Sunday, we will burn them all together. This is a collective and community ritual, and a highly emotional moment shared together.

Empty cards will start to appear in the city and the call will spread like a rumour, across family circles, between friends and within communities… What is a secret? Why do we hide it? How can we set ourselves free from it?

Once the installation has arrived, it will be time to share your secret, anonymously, in the early hours or under the cover of night… a sealed urn will hold the secrets we want to keep hidden.

On the evening of the fifth day, Sunday 30 January, residents of Rennes will be invited to the city centre at nightfall to set alight these large letters and the life stories they harbour. On the last day we wish each other happy new year in France, this will become a liberating inferno reminiscent of an ancient ritual, similar to the ancestral Bonfires of Saint John.

S E C R E T S de Rennes starts as a personal and collective conversation, becoming an act of communion and catharsis through which we can let go of our deepest secrets, anonymously telling the world. It sheds light on what was once hidden, setting us free from the unspeakable. In a pure artistic and powerfully symbolic gesture, the installation will end with this ceremonial and collective moment of shared emotion that offers the promise of a new beginning. At the start of the new year, this will be a first opportunity to gather together by repeating these necessary collective rituals.

• 1 From 12 January, the cards on which you can write your secrets will be available from the Bréquigny, La Paillette, Le Grand Cordel, La Maison de Suède and L’Antipode youth and culture centres (MJC), Tourism Office (Couvent des Jacobins), Hôtel Pasteur and Arvor Cinema.
• 2 From 26 to 30 January, after Dan Acher’s installation has been set up in Place du Parlement, you will be able to drop off your precious letter anonymously or fill in a secrets card on site in a polling booth. You can also read the passions and regrets of others who have shared their secrets like you. Open on Wednesday 26 from 12 noon to 8pm, and on Thursday 27, Friday 28 and Saturday 29 from 10am to 8pm. Please note that on Sunday 30 January, you will only be able to drop off secrets (from 10am to 5pm).
• 3 From 5:30pm on Sunday 30 January, at nightfall, meet us at Place du Parlement to watch the entire installation burn along with all the secrets it holds.