Puppetry / dance / wandering in public spaces -création 2023-
Concept and direction / Amélie Poirier in collaboration with photographer Lucie Pastureau
All audiences, ages 12 and up
The voice-over and written texts present in the public space during the show can be easily translated.
For this daytime or night-time installation in public spaces or in-situ in schools, Amélie Poirier draws inspiration from American women photographers of the 60s to 80s to create, in collaboration with French contemporary photographer Lucie Pastureau: a choreographic and puppet-like journey. Driven by the rock and protest energy of the period, and inspired in particular by the "freaks" photographed by Diane Arbus, 20ème RUE OUEST sets Lucie Pastureau's photographs in motion through light, image mechanization systems, photographic textualization and choreographic processes. From the act of shooting, to the darkroom, from black and white to color, the entire photographic process is brought to life. The presence of a photographer-puppeteer recounts the act of creation in resonance with the writings on photography by Susan Sontag and other photographers of the period, creating a reflexive space for the ambivalent act of photographing. This reflection echoes contemporary issues of representation and self-representation.
In this stroll, the photographer-puppeteer guides the public to meet "out of the ordinary" characters, setting the two-dimensional photos in motion. These include a giant, binoculars, a baby going through great emotions, a transvestite, nudists, disabled people and more. The show's creative team are also among those photographed, becoming part of this genealogy of "monstrous bodies".
Diane Arbus, like Alice in Wonderland, asked herself: what is normal? Abnormal? What is animal? What is human? What's the difference between reality and belief? In turn, the audience, through the different paths it is led to take, wanders through the marginalized spaces of cities, caught up in rock energy, revealing the incongruous beauty of architecture or landscapes on the brink of precipice.