Image aIgue

“Mixing different characters and cultures on stage is like an invitation to get out of one’s home and see what’s going on elsewhere, next door or miles away. It’s a call to travel through a dream world and to look at someone with a positive richness no matter what he or she is.”

Christiane Véricel

CAN THEATRE HELP TO UNDERSTAND

THE WORLD ?

In more than ten years, Image Aiguë has emphasised its action in Europe. Awarded the title of « European cul-tural Ambassador » by the EU in 2010, the Company will strengthen its artistic cooperation with its Italian, Swed-ish, Portuguese and Turkish partners. Image Aiguë is now thinking of opening up its theatrical approach to other countries, such as Georgia or Egypt.

Meet each other, observe and pass onImage Aiguë continues to develop the « Ensemble

Théâtral Européen » created in 2008. This ensemble counts also training and research workshops marking at different moments of the year the work accomplished by the Company.

Young artists with different nationalities are intro-duced to Christiane Véricel’s artistic approach. Having progressively acquired these methods, they can later on transmit the values of the Company.

Cultural actors and various professionals (journal-ists, searchers, Fine Arts artists...) are also invited to improve, through their abilities and singularity, Im-age Aiguë’s considerations and thoughts on the world. Some artists can take ideas from the work-shops to create their own works of art : texts, videos, photos and also drawings.

The Ensemble Théâtral Européen is also a space where artistic harmony can spread the idea of a Europe based on tolerance and opening to the world...

How can tHeatre find its place in tHe world to Help developing a sense for a euro-pean citizensHip ? for tHe last 27 years, cHristiane véricel Has been working witH comedians coming from different cultures, origins and of different ages. under Her direction, tHey tackle and question on stage tHe great problems of our time.

created in 1983 by christiane véricel, the compagnie image aiguë assembles around the same

theatrical approach some twenty artists (comedians, stage decorators, musicians...), technicians and administrators. using her international experience, Christiane Véricel works on inventing a theatrical language that allows each of the participants to express himself in his own idiom while, at the same time, the spectator under-stands what’s going on.

In all her creations, Image Aiguë’s professional actors play together with children and teenagers, natives or immigrants met during their trips and united on stage in france and abroad. christiane véricel uses each personality to create characters that will tell us universal stories about power, differences, survival and hunger…

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body. In experiencing different cultures, I have learned to invent universal patterns in which individuals coming from all kinds of horizons can involve themselves almost immediately on a personal and intimate level. Then, I am inspired by what is happening under my eyes in order to start inventing characters and then build the framework of the performance.

« The most important thing is that each actor expresses his identity

and personality to increase the intensity

of acting. »

Encounters and exchanges invented on this occasion are based on concrete and vivid experiences, aiming at emphasising the personal life experiences and feelings of each artist. It’s a real and constant flow between all our imagination. The most important thing is that each actor

expresses his identity and personality to increase the intensity of acting. Everyday, I realise how the stage is a fantastic catalyst. It helps to weave links, to open our eyes onto the diversity of our world and onto the complexity of the relational mechanisms organising our society.

— in tHis last performance, you Have wisHed to accentuate in your work tHe presence of cHildren on stage…

Yes, indeed. I have tried to question and harmonize the small powers in every one, offering the children a large part, not only on stage but also in the subject of the play. Especially in Les Ogres : On top of the subjects linked to hunger and the fight for food, this performance tackles a question very special to me, that of resistance. When should you obey and when should you resist ? It’s very interesting to work with children on those themes and to talk with them about the limits of resistance and discipline.

— wHo are tHe cHildren pl aying in Les ogres ?

The children acting in Les Ogres have been working with us for many years. In fact, as I knew them very well, I was able to transpose their way of being in order to invent from them new characters that

— after ici Là-bas, you are now presen-ting les ogres. How do you consider tHis new creation compared to tHe for-mer performances of tHe coMpagnie iMage aiguë ?

The central theme of The Ogres comes back to a concern always present in the work of Image Aiguë since its creation in 1983 : the question of sharing food and the search for a balance where there is space for everyone. How is it possible in the years to come to feed all the human being on earth ? Of course, I can’t answer this question, but I can try, via the stage, to make each of us aware of it. As the performances of Compagnie Image Aiguë are based on the personality of each actor on stage, each of our creations is conceived like a unique and unusual proposition.

— wHicH is tHe process of creation used to create your performances from tHe personality of tHe comedians ?

I ask the comedians to work on simple and universal stories linked to stories related to the news or to situations known by every-

today, as a european cuLturaL aMbassador, the « coMpagnie iMage

aiguë » carries on its theatricaL expLorations around subjects such

as aLterity, differences, territory, Lacks and needs… these expLo-

rations invoLve the participation of professionaL and chiLdren

actors — interpreters who are Looking with huMour at buLiMic

and insatiabLe peopLe in «Les ogres».

In search of a balance where everybody finds its place

1983 christiane véricel organises acting workshops with chil-dren and teenagers of all origins in a popular district of st etienne. then she decides to create the compagnie image aiguë in order to carry out her way of acting.

1994 in nazareth, the biggest arab city in israel, christiane véricel enables play together Jewish and mus-lim children. these moments filled with

intense confrontation and surprises give birth to the performance called adama.

1998 the compagnie image aiguë organises acting workshops with children from pondichéry. following this experience, young prakash and antonia-mal travelled to france to participate to the creation of nandri at the centre dra-matique de bretagne, (drama centre of brittany). afterwards they went on tour in more than twenty three french towns.

Interview of Christiane Véricelby Manuel Piolat Soleymat

27 creations around the big divides of the world

compagnie cHristiane véricel

Since 1983, the Company was hosted on local, national and international stages in the five continents. Image Aiguë has created 36 origi-nal productions, played over a 1000 times in 35 countries and more than 250 places.

1999 af ter india : brazil, christiane véricel goes to rio de Janeiro where she joins an association for street children. with some of these children, she invents the performance dia a dia.

2000 after all these years spent around the globe, image aigue decides to strengthen its action over the european continent. Hosted in macedonia, in the heart of a gypsy camp, christiane véricel creates curu-mi, than leaves for a european tour. the program called « le théâtre pour s’affirmer comme citoyen du monde » (theatre as a way to assert oneself as citizen of the world) marks the beginning of the support by the ue.

2008-2009 within a project supported by the european union, « l’europe commence ici ou là-bas », the compagnie image aiguë produces in october 2008 ici là-bas at the théâtre des célestins, in lyon. then follows in 2009, a tour in france, in the check republic and in sweden.

2010 it’s now time for a new production, the ogres, or power makes you happy and tireless, fol-lowed by a french and european tour till 2011. during summer 2010, artists from italy, portugal, sweden and tur-key will meet in lyon and participate in the acting workshops for training and research with the ensemble théâtral européen.

are very different from one another : Even stronger characters, more pushed to act than in my other performances. None of them gives me back a rosy or normal image of childhood. Les Ogres is made of a succession of rather short stories meant to be modified or rounded out. It’s like a kind of theatrical mosaic where an element can be either developed or replaced in order to change the size of the performance. Let me give you an example : I would love to work again with artists from the circus, like I did in «Ici là-bas», or explore

« Each timE that wE go ElsEwhErE, EvEn if it’s just nExt door, wE widEn our tErritory and our knowlEdgE of thE othErs. »

christiane véricel, stage director and artistic direction sandrine de rosa, Musician and comedianfrédéric Périgaud et Burhan taskiran, ComediansEstanislao sanchez, Musician

Training Artists :jean sclavis, Puppeteerviolaine véricel, Dancersilvia nogueira, Singer and accompanist

Associated artists :Estelle feuvrier and gilles feuvrier, Counsellor comedian

Administration :nicolas Bertrand, AdministratorPierre Brini, Secretary Generalilitza georgieva, In charge of communication

livia lavieille, Accountant and administration assistantolivier Pinay, Coordinator, editor of contents

Technicians :Bruno corona, General stage-managingmichel theuil, Lighting engineermuriel habrard, Video director

Ensemble Théâtral Européen :Young artists from Sweden, Italy, Turkey , Portugal and France Children of Europe : servan, Einar, giacinto, Patricia, andré, rosaria

Children of Europe :luca, mbariki, marie-sara, tom, lynda, mathilda, rania, catarina, Baptiste, antoine, kaelia, lenaelle, camillia.

Compagnie Image Aiguë

In search of a balance where everybody finds its place « for me, pleasure means acting. » (Luca d’Haussy, 12 years)

« my greedy neighbour had the terrible look of a man who is physically unable to see anything else than what he wants to gulp down either a portion of whipped cream or a country. » (Klaus Mann)

« I am a marvellous thing, not less and not more marvellous than the others. » (Albert Jacquard)

« it’s an open row boat. no one can save himself alone : neither a society, nor an economy. there is no language possible without the others. no culture or civilisation can reach its top without any relationship with others. » (Edouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau)

« as for me, the subject is always more important than the image. » (Diane Arbus)

« Our artistic approach assumes that we never stay within the speech or the theory. movement, spurts and sharing are essential. » (Christiane Véricel)

the world of puppets I have always been attracted to and that I am experimenting for the first time in this show.

— Les ogres regularly calls on tHe image of tHe gleaner. wHat does tHis type of cHaracter mean to you ?

In my show, I usually move forward in letting myself be inspired by the circums-tances. Actually, the character of a gleaner came across my mind while I was working with a class at primary school. I was looking for ancestral gestures that would still be eloquent today. I love getting very close to simplicity, in order to be able to take off and then go further. The idea of the gleaner at work corresponds to this approach. This universal gesture has crossed all the history of humanity to finally reach us. Even nowadays, people continue to harvest : when they collect mussels on the beach or pick up products abandoned on the markets… I started from this idea in my working on Les Ogres. It’s the red thread that led me to explore the field of lack and emptiness, rather then that of plenty and wealth.

— in fact, your performance doesn’t convey tHe usual image we Have of ogres…

No, it does not. You can find other images in the ogre, other references, such as authority for instance. I found it far more interesting to work around characters of ogres that were transposed, to explore the ideas of power and dependence rather than satisfying myself to reproduce the usual imagery associated

to them. In order to do it, I have explored the radical changes of power and authority around the idea of power struggle between adults and children, comedians and puppets, humans and animals…

— wHat do you tHink about tHe nomination of tHe coMpagnie iMage aigue to tHe rank of european cuLturaL aMbassador ?

I am very proud and at the same time very happy. It formalizes a very important dimension of our work : the transmission of our artistic philosophy. This role of ambas-sador will help us to assume even better our part as purveyor of culture and to hone the way we are looking at the world, at others

and at individuals. Each time we go somewhere else, even if it’s just next door, we enlarge our territory and the knowledge of the others.

— wHat is tHe Heart of image aiguë’s pHilosopHy ?

Our philosophy is based on a very simple idea : exploring what is elsewhere or outside can help us to adopt an attitude of tolerance towards the others. If you look at the singu larity and differences of each individual, acting makes us realise that these « others » improve ourselves, that everybody is a living being and that we can’t adopt a unique way of relating with the outside world. So, in Les Ogres, when we talk about obedience or non obedience, we naturally come to question ourselves about the unique place that each of us takes in the world compared with the place taken by the others. This is the only way to try to live in a fair way.

« Acting makes us realise that (...) we can’t

adopt a unique way of relationship towards

the exterior world. »

— for tHis last performance, you Have also revisited tHe pHotos by diane arbus…

Yes indeed, I am very fond of this photographer. As Diane Arbus explains it, she always gives priority in her works to the subject, or to the people she takes photos of, rather than the picture or the photography itself. I work like that too. I often give way to the characters, inspired by the personality of each comedian, rather than give priority to a restrictive staging. As I am working with the living, I find it stronger to put emphasis on interesting personalities rather than setting them inside a fixed frame that might be too rigid.

— is tHis tHe reason wHy your productions are very often in constant evolution ?

Yes, probably. If you want to keep the authenticity of characters and emotions, the performance must stay a living creation and you have to constantly feel the pleasure of acting. In fact, I think that if there is no pleasure, there is no acting. This applies to the artists but also the public. Like the acting being shaped on stage, our perfor-mances are made for a very bright audience : a mixed audience from a social, cultural and generation point of view. But of course, this always goes hand in hand with the will to defend the highest artistic standards. The work of Image Aiguë follows a double lane that ends up in one single way: a theatre that is at the same time popular and militant.

« Each timE that wE go ElsEwhErE, EvEn if it’s just nExt door, wE widEn our tErritory and our knowlEdgE of thE othErs. »

Image aIgu

Peanuts, tangerines, loaves of bread, cocoa powder, bis-cuits… A table, a cooking pot, a checked table cloth, plates, a ladle, forks… Girls and boys, puppets, violins, bandoneon, a clown nose, a black-silk hen…

Big conflicts and small wars

With six children actors and four professional come-dians meeting on stage, Christiane Véricel creates Les Ogres : It’s a new invitation to think over the question of

food sharing, to explore by the means of theatre the dif-ferent themes of lack, access to resources and relationship to dependence and authority. This mosaic-like performance made of a succession of small stories, a series of theatrical sequences, creating highly contrasted moods and univer-ses, opens our minds to the consequences of big conflicts and small wars.

Rushing over some crumbs, fighting for life or to defend their rights of property, the big and small characters running under

to the lively scenes during which the children manage to impose themselves towards adults, these moments, coloured with some hints of melancholy, give a touch of impressionism to Christiane Véricel’s new production.

A creation where different short scenes can be modified and reinvented in future, in order to nourish the vivid and fruitful vision of acting on which the Compagnie Image Aiguë has been working for more than 25 years.

Manuel Piolat Soleymat

Ogres or power makes you happy and tireless

Partners :centre culturel français de palerme et de sicile (italy),¨cˇu’m„a* (turkey), setepés (portugal),nycirkusprogrammet – s:t botvids gymnasium (sweden),kc zahrada (check republic), stichting caucasusfoundation (georgia)théâtre de la renaissance – oullins, théâtre de vienne,théâtre gérard philipe - centredramatique national de saint-denis (france)

image aiguë is sponsored by the european union as « european Cultural Ambassador » for the year 2010. it also has the support of the programme culture that helps the active organisms at a european level in the cultural field.

our eyes become in turn exe-cutioners and victims, mas-ters and slaves, puppets and manipulators. In their own way, they take part in the fight for existence and give us back the image of our egoisms, our impatience and avidities.

A vivid and fruitful vision of theatre

When they are not punc-tuated by musical moments, power struggles and exchan-ges of words, the different sequences of The Ogres don’t need any words and can just

rely on the unique presence of the actors: like little Marie-Sara and Kaïna, silently sit-ting on a bench, facing the audience… A woman (San-drine De Rosa) joins them, without uttering a word and starts to peel potatoes meticu-lously. She doesn’t see that she has hurt herself and that she is bleeding... But then, we hear again voices, injunctions, peti-tions and happy reprimands… These little bits of daily life, out of time, give birth to stage moments which, if full of a striking poetry, are also full of meaning. Counterpoints

With the support of the Fondation Hippocrène

The entire publication commits only the Compagnie Image Aiguë. The European Commission is not responsible for the use that could be made of the informations that it contains.

compagnie cHristiane véricel

we reckon tHat 24 000 people die of Hunger everyday in tHe world, it means one in every 4 seconds. How many people could we feed if eacH inHabitant of tHe globe followed tHe diet of a farmer in bangladesH ? well, 18 billion. How many people could we feed if everybody followed tHe diet of a european or american citizen ? 700 million…

Image Aiguë Compagnie Christiane Véricel 2, place des terreaux 69001 lyon tel. +33 (0)4 78 27 74 81 fax. +33 (0)4 72 00 95 41 email. contact@image-aigue.org

you may order all our publications (Journal là-bas-ici, carnets de voyage) on : www.image-aigue.org

september 2008 may 2009 october 2009 www.image - aigue.orgtexts : christiane véricel et manuel piolat-soleymat - photography : image aiguë - translation : marion westerhoff - graphics : gérard paris-clavel, assisted by anne desrivières - photo-engraving, impression : Jourdan - edited in June 2010

Image aIgu