By: FRANÇOIS HOUDE, Le Nouvelliste
(NOTE: This article was originally published in French. It has been translated into English using Google Translate. As such, there may be some errors in translation.)
Cirque du Soleil could have done business with Montreal artists or elsewhere to create the decorations of Juste un p’tite nuite. Nobody would have been angry. They opted for two Trois-Rivières artists, Jérémie Deschamps Bussières and Félix Lemay. Nothing prevents us from believing that the Cirque simply chose the best artists available.
The two visual artists from Trois-Rivières who collaborated in the tribute show to the Colocs were marked by the work of Dédé Fortin and his happy band without having followed them since their beginnings. It has even been an advantage, they believe.
“We knew their music, obviously, pleads Felix Lamy, but after their career. It was through the film Dede through the mists that we had an image of what the Colocs were. We have never seen one of their shows and maybe it’s an advantage because we were not influenced by what they themselves did. It allowed us to offer our vision to the group and not to copy their own inspiration. ”
The Colocs and Quebec are closely and inextricably linked in their young thirties. “For me, the Colocs are the fleur de lys. We can not talk about modern Quebec without mentioning the Colocs somewhere. They have marked an entire generation and those who followed because their music is still there. They knew how to express as much in their music as in the poetry of their texts an urban reality that stuck to our experience. They have been able to translate the reality of a pack of people who have recognized themselves in their songs as much in their cheerfulness as in the suffering that many express. ”
Without having seen Cirque du Soleil’s show, Jérémie does not doubt for a single second of his success. “There are so many people who know the Colocs at first, but I think their imagination will still talk to a lot of people. Their music is varied, often very catchy and it seems perfect to serve as a basis for a great show. Through the contacts we had with the team, we could see that for every aspect of Just a little night, there is a lot of creativity. I’m sure it’s going to be a big success. ”
In terms of their contribution, they believe it can only be beneficial to their careers. “It’s been a while since we’ve been working on getting the art out of galleries and that’s another step in this journey,” says Felix. Of course, a collaboration like this one will be positive for us in one way or another even if it is not what we were looking for in the first place. If only for the experience of working on scenography that was not part of our modes of expression and this, with high-level artists. We liked it a lot: if the opportunity arose again, we would do it again. ”
“I’m happy with what we achieved because it looks like us,” said Jérémie Deschamps Bussières. There was a challenge to achieve something beautiful with elements that, in themselves, are rather ugly and that, I think we did it well. It goes perfectly with the overall vision of the show and it also goes completely in the direction of our own artistic approach.”
What is surprising is that the duo of visual artists has not worked on stage sets for a good fifteen years and again, it was in a course in high school! That said, this is not the first way of doing circus that disconcerts. And then, it is a tribute to the versatility of these two creators who quickly felt comfortable in the role they were given.
“We always liked what the Circus does, but the fact that it’s a tribute to the Colocs, it immediately attracted us, explains Jérémie. We are not of the generation who discovered the Colocs from their beginnings; we came to their music a little later but they occupied a great place in our musical culture. If there was a show that we wanted to work on, it’s definitely this one. ”
“We never thought we could ever work with the circus but when the opportunity arose, we sure jumped at the chance,” says Felix. I had never stopped thinking that our productions, Jérémie and I, could have integrated into what the Cirque does. At the same time, what we have done has always been creative, colorful and finally, we realize that it goes particularly well with the creative approach of the Circus. The other thing we did not dream about Cirque is that we basically work in 2-D: we’re not at all in the stage sets, usually. ”
Yet, contacts with Cirque’s creative minds were only open. “Initially, they gave us an idea of ??their orientation but in a very broad way to leave plenty of room for our creativity,” says Jérémie. They were then extremely open to all that was proposed. We speak the same language. I think things have been easy because they recognize the qualities they are looking for in employees. They quickly understand who they are dealing with and see if it can work with them. ”
“Specifically, we knew they wanted to dress the scene with graffiti, which was already close to our personal creation, continues his colleague. We are already working with spray paint on our paintings so we knew we could do something interesting with graffiti using this technique. ”
“They lined us up with certain songs that, in their eyes, were evocative and we were particularly inspired by the song The comet. The text is really strong and we realized that in their texts in general, the words are particularly evocative. We can sometimes leave a single word of a song, put it in the background and it evokes lots of ideas, images. It was really inspiring to work with the band’s songs. ”
The two artists maintain that they have not received any categorical refusal of their proposals. That some adjustments during the process consisted first to present ideas, then sketches, then models that were later transposed to the scale of the very large stage of the Cogeco Amphitheater. “From beginning to end, we were on the same wavelength,” they summarize.
Large format
The biggest challenge for this decor? “The height! We have never done anything so big. We worked on software to scale our drawings to make sure it worked. We had never done this before, but we never had such a surface to cover! It takes all the grandeur of the stage, “explains Jérémie Deschamps Bussières.
The preparation was such that the direct work on the surface to be covered was only a week. “We knew so well what to say that we were confident enough to improvise when needed to apply the paint. The final work lasted a week but we do not calculate the two months we took to think about the project and to design it. Throughout this period, there has been a lot of follow-up emails and meetings. ”
“We are very proud of the result and the feedback we got from the circus people, both the designers and the artists and technicians, was very positive. They all tell us it works perfectly with the show. ”
For Jérémie Deschamps Bussières and Félix Lemay, their contribution to Juste un p’tite nuite is not a work of support, but a work in itself. “For me, we could take separately what we did and it is a work that represents us very well. We would be proud to show it in another context detached from the show. I even feel like I could cut portions that would be justified as complete works in themselves. ”
“What I discovered about Cirque du Soleil is that they will look for the best of each employee by allowing them to express themselves. It’s like a challenge to each participant of the show, a challenge to surpass themselves and it’s all of all that makes a show successful, “says Felix Lemay.
{ SOURCE: Le Nouvelliste }
