A few words about your artistic career
My career as a multi-talented artist requires a good deal of mastery. Because mastery allows me to move from music to humour, from dance to storytelling. My career path, although a great success, is above all a tree rooted in incessant work.
How long have you been an artist?
Expressing this in 20 words illustrates the 20 years in which my passion has blossomed. While my colleagues were writing on their slates, I was strumming my guitar.
Why did you apply for this scholarship? How will the scholarship support you?
This grant is an expressive springboard that will enable us to say out loud to consumers and fans of the performing arts that the world may be coming to an end, but it won't be coming through Covid.
What are your concrete artistic objectives after this residency?
To use the built environment as a means of reinforcing and restoring the cheerfulness that has been lost to the victims of the crisis.
What did you achieve during this creative residency? What is the result (work created)? Who was involved in the creative process?
We began our work at the table. We then set up a rehearsal space with a tarpaulin to serve as a stage, and a sheet frame to avoid contact with the outside world and create a creative atmosphere that would encourage the storytellers to concentrate on stage.
The performer is a flower that needs to be watered before it metamorphoses into a cactus. This means that the rule of a consistent play requires a vast concentration and mastery of the scenic material, in order to obtain an insightful rendering. To this end, the storytellers were treated to morning and afternoon refreshments.
Photographs and videos are regularly taken during rehearsals to promote the show and see how it develops from creation to performance.
Costume design and purchase are two different concepts. The set design consists solely of two wooden frames covered in black fabric, and two stage sets inserted to give the storytellers a clear view of the stage. The result is a "castelet and puppet" effect.
How do you think these activities help us to think about the world today, in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, and/or about building for the future?
We've pinpointed everyday situations to show just how much the world has changed. As we began to describe today's world, we noticed that the scourges that accompany Covid 19 all begin with the letter C: confinement, unemployment, crisis, nightmare, contagion, corona, muffler, chloroquine, ordeal, contamination.
Based on today's world, we were able to give our opinion on the new world where the earth can rest thanks to a break in the pollution of nature. There's no longer any need to travel to apply for a job, because everything is done virtually, for example.
We have made it clear that people should not hate their neighbours, but try to find compromises so that this world, which belongs to all of us, is beneficial to both. The key word is mistrust. And through this theatrical tale, we want to get the world's population thinking about the impact of Covid on humanity, so that everyone takes responsibility.
How did you feel during the residency? And afterwards?
During the creative residency, we were highly motivated and even wanted to do hours and hours of rehearsals because we were so imaginative. Whether it was the technicians or the storytellers, everyone pitched in to contribute to this work.
At the end of the residency, we came up with a number of projects and are currently creating a show in the style of a story-theatre, which we will be presenting. The title has not yet been found, but the content is already being written.
Despite this, we produced the work we wanted to present. We had several ideas after the show was created, but we wrote them down and we'll be sure to add them to our intervention theatre tour.
We were amazed that the show caught on and got the audience thinking about the current health situation. At our second performance, the Delegate General of Wallonie Bruxelles RDC gave us a standing ovation.
[(
Covid to the Void
)]
