SOMMES-NOUS DES OMBRES ?

First Cécil Égalis suggested "Les boiteux du ciel", a short story by French writer Jules Supervielle that she had been interested in transposing for a while without finding a satisfying way to do it. The use of photographic elements would allow us to create an installation that would provide the setting for a performance with puppets.
I began to imagine and then photograph a number of different characters (a collection of "extras", so to speak), the evocation of a colorful and heterogeneous population, with no historic or geographic boundaries, men involved in activities they still had the memory of, the nostalgia, the gesture but not the tools. It brought back to my mind the memory, the nostalgia perhaps, the visual experience anyhow, of my distant past as a comic book designer.
I wrapped my models in a three source back light that gave them an appearance somewhere between reality, memories, material world and a world of shadows. From the beginning on, I chose to print this images on a semi transparent fabric that would freely float in the installation/performance space.

At this time, Carol Bourdon was invited to join us. Writer, stage director, she has worked with Cécil on several shows and she was going to adapt Supervielle's story. For diverse reasons she wrote a new story instead, based on the same world but with a different theme, another storyline and new characters, some of them inspired by my first series of images.
In a new photo session, I then completed the photographic part of the project, including the characters imagined by Carol which we didn't have yet and several female "extras".

The project was originally conceived to be staged at the Chateau of Saché but other activities at the site made it inaccessible, so I suggested that we consider the Corroirie du Liget, a XIIth century fortified monastery, nested in a valley near the medieval city of Loches. The site is rich with a haunting and evocative past. I had exhibited there several times and I knew that the de Mareuil family would welcome us enthusiastically.
Our first visit was a revelation for Cécil and Carole and our project, actually much more suitable for this magical site, took on its full dimensions.

At my request, Carole included projections of a few of my photographs in the progression of the performance, images of characters taking part in the story. They are backlit paper prints that I give life to (animate) under a video camera in a manner inspired by puppeteers' manipulating techniques.
The actor Philippe Emauré contributed to the staging and also plays the part of the narrator/guide. He lends his voice to these projected characters.

To make the adventure complete, the visual artist Serge Dubuc designed and built a device of his invention, a sort of "shadow merry-go-round", that casts revolving silhouettes of some of my characters on the walls of a corridor leading the public to the exit at the end of the performance

For the two preceding editions of the Photofolies en Touraine festival I had created a sound background for each of my photo installations. For "Sommes-Nous Des Ombres ?" the soundtrack, a mix of original music and sound effects, was to be an integral part of the story telling. I composed a two part ragtime orchestrated in various styles corresponding to each scene, from Musique Concrete to Hip Hop, from string orchestra to brass band, with a mix of ghostly whispers, winds, sea waves and the chants of various birds.

Based on the Corroirie experience, the form of the installation and the performance will be adapted to achieve the right interplay between our creation and future sites with strong characteristics.

Then the show will go on…

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