“We were selected by the Grand Est Region to respond to the call for candidates at Louis-Armand, to a two and a half year residency , which started in January… ”explains Eurgen, from company La Grande Roue de Mulhouse. The goal, for Abdeslam Hamdi, the principal of the Louis-Armand high school in Mulhouse who had already carried out the same type of experience “very rich in every way”, when he was principal of the Villon college, is to “facilitate access to culture “for all, and” to accompany the course of high school students, to provide them with help and tools for the great oral exam of the bac “.
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Bringing art to young people
The principle is to involve artists in the form of performances, set up workshops with the maximum number of interested students and create artistic productions with student volunteers. Their project started from a show, The Lobster of Aurélia , “A poetic UFO that mixes theater, music and video”, describes Eurgen, storyteller and company clown.
And this, in partnership with Afsco, “which has long been very involved in the neighborhood to bring art to young people”, continues the young woman. Moreover, six classes were able to see the Lobster of Aurélia there and in parallel interventions at the high school, the company will create, in residence at Afsco, the Lobster of Aurélia 2, the pupils will be able to attend the stages of creation , possibly participate in the scenography (applied arts class).
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Giving other perspectives
The great wheel has three other speakers on this residence, Stéphane Jordan, singer-songwriter, Solène Froissart, actress and director and Marc Guénard, photographer and videographer. Their first intervention in high school, dates from February: “we performed a performance, “Operation commando # 1”. We had recreated a boarding room in the hall one morning; and when the students arrived, we woke up and had breakfast. ” Then throughout the morning, the actors joined the high school students, in the classes, to recite poems, then answer the many questions raised by their presence.
The problem is that the coronavirus has passed through there, and because of the confinement, the artists have no longer been able to see the high school students… However, the project aims to “give other perspectives” to young adults who are high school students, to “open their minds”, “to give access to art, also thanks to the investment of the teaching team which is very committed”, specifies Eurgen. That is why, the company La Grande Roue decided to do the splits to keep in touch with high school students, by moving towards video productions … “The principle, working remotely on an artistic object for students, so that they understand how we work” explains the artist.
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A first video on Youtube on April 29
A first video will be broadcast on Youtube and social networks, for the special attention of Louis-Armand students, Wednesday April 29. “Then, through the high school, we will ask them to know their reactions and for the volunteers to start too, from home.” It will be the first of a mini-series of ten two or three minute videos. “Each one will have a theme, and will be a mixture of video, insertions of other images, recorded voices, mixed with music … A real performative artistic object,” notes Eurgen.
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Students, teachers, parents will also be able to seize this opportunity as “a breath of fresh air during confinement and with the hard constraints of school at home,” said the principal. For the artist, “during confinement, many young people are disconnected from school reality, are in distress”. Such a project could hang them up, get them out of containment.
“The format will be imposed, but it will be a participatory work; we are going to drive them in order to make them produce something that, we company, we will mount. After confinement, we can talk about it again and show this production to as many people as possible, to relaunch the project the following year! “Enthuses the storyteller, who during this” psychic death “of confinement, sees with these videos as a renaissance of the artistic project.
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