2023-06-24 07:47:12
Crooked cap, a face devoured by a dense mustache, round eyes in front of this fish which sparkles at the end of the line… If behind the window, the man suddenly came to life, no one would really be surprised. Designed in 1927 by the Hungarian Géza Blazer, then living in Paris, this melancholic fisherman is one of the astonishing creatures that have taken possession of the Center national du costume et de la scène (1). More than 200 objects make up an unprecedented exhibition that plunges into the heart of an art still in search of recognition – two years after the creation of the national puppet centers – and yet abounding.
At the heart of this lush forest, the two curators of the exhibition, Aurélie Mouton-Rezzouk, lecturer at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Institute for Theater Studies, and Joël Huthwohl, director of the performing arts department of the National Library of France, have carved out a completely original path.
“The question we wanted to ask is why do artists choose the puppet? summarizes Aurélie Mouton-Rezzouk. We apprehend it here as an instrument, as one would speak of a musical instrument. On stage, the puppet plays a score of its own. »
Contemporary creation in the spotlight
Although the selection of exhibits spans approximately a century, from the 1920s to the present day, it is not a question of drawing up a historical panorama of puppetry. The thematic route, which gives a large place to contemporary creation, blurs the tracks of time and eras to seek the very essence of a discipline that is difficult to circumscribe. From the giants of Fernand Léger to the miniatures of the Vélo-théâtre, from the realistic blind men of Bérangère Vantusso to the most fantastic creatures – the machines of the Théâtre de la Licorne or the Ostriches of Philippe Genty, to name but a few.
From the most rudimentary techniques to the most complex mechanics, what is the thread that connects such different objects? “It’s the notion of playing by delegation”, says Aurélie Mouton-Rezzouk. From theater by “interposed object” according to the formula of Roland Shön, also quoted in the magnificent catalog (2) published on the occasion of the exhibition: “Why the puppet? Because it also makes it possible to do theater with the hands, marvelous natural tools, the most intelligent organs of our body. »
Also each character is accompanied here by a cartel detailing the show associated with it. Whether or not we linger in front of the many texts, we will let ourselves be caught up in the sensitive charm of Émilie Valantin’s castelet for her show I have bothered and I will bother (1993), in which a tiny man opposes the occupants of his communal apartment, represented by a row of disproportionate boots.
Between confusion and fascination, the visitor connects surprising head-to-head. The great Antigone by Georges Lafaye, the plexiglas Dom Juan by the Houdart-Heuclin company or even the Chrysalis by Philippe Genty. Immensely poetic creatures, apparently inert, who basically question nothing other than a common humanity.
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