La Tortue de Gauguin (Gauguin’s Turtle)

Category: Show

Our artistic aim is to give the spectator an original look at art (beyond museums and galleries and other spaces where static images are shown), in particular, painting, video, shadow work, etc., by putting the live creation of these images into a theatrical space, where the movements and physical work of the artists form an integral part of the whole. Through the magic of theatre we want to evoke and exalt the mysteries and the ambiguities of art; the images are wrought in real time, without any artifice, and, in keeping with the ephemeral and volatile spirit of theatre, destroyed at once.

Amongst other things we would like to invoke or even celebrate images (in the widest sense of the term) produced by “poor” artists (“poor” meaning with few resources, but rich in spirit), artists who do not care if we label them “outsiders” or “popular” or “unusual”.

SHOW PRESENTATION:
I heard that during one of his stays in the Marquesas Islands, Paul Gauguin had the idea of painting directly on the shell of a young live turtle lost on a beach. I like to think that, thanks to this species’ long life span, one of the painter’s works, far from the avarice of speculators, still continues to swim back and forth today in the ocean depths, in its own little mobile museum.
What anecdote could be more appropriate to illustrate our desire to offer the public a singular vision of art and particularly of painting?
Our idea is not to do this on the ocean waves of Polynesia but rather in the floods of urban traffic, right in the middle of a crossroads or a public place, setting up our vast easel there beforehand. Our live music and the voices of our narrator and the painters themselves will replace the sound of the waves and the wailing of the wind in coconut trees, which must have been the background noise for Gauguin’s activity.

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Show Details

  • Date Created: 2017
  • Length: 60 minutes
  • Performance area: The stage : a traditional Layher Universal scaffolding, 5,20 m wide, 10 m high and 4 m deep
  • Number. of people on road: 13
  • Workshops available: No
  • Scale: Large scale
  • Capacity: Over 2000
  • Availability: Has touring availability
  • Language: French
  • Audience type: All audiences, all ages

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