La cascadeure — 40mcube — Rennes — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 17 → 19, 2019

Initiated by artists Virginie Barré, Romain Bobichon and Julien Gorgeart, the 6 episodes series La cascadeure is a collective project that brings together artists Pierre Budet, Camille Girard & Paul Brunet, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Florence Doléac, Olivier Nottellet, Bruno Peinado, Yoan Sorin. It is based on a combination of concrete facts and multiple references.

Julien Gorgeart, Virginie Barré, Romain Bobichon, Julien Gorgeart, La cascadeure, 2018 Julien Gorgeart

The first of these references is Tonino Benaquista’s novel Saga (1997), in which a private television channel must produce a soap opera to meet the French creative quota imposed by the public authorities. Thinking only of reducing costs, it decided to shoot a sitcom with a bare minimum of financial means, which it would broadcast in the middle of the night. With the certainty of an extremely small audience, it hired four unemployed scriptwriters: Louis, a has-been, Jérôme, a science fiction fan, Mathilde, a romance novelist, and Marco, a beginner (the narrator).

The scriptwriters, who don’t have to achieve any audience rating, are being offered a total freedom of imagination. They create characters and situations that are totally off-the-wall. Thanks to insomniacs, bed-ridden people and night workers, the series, called Saga, was a huge success…

Produced by a group of artists with a permanent or temporary tie in Douarnenez, we can’t help but draw a parallel between Saga’s forgotten scriptwriters and artists far from Finistère.

Julien Gorgeart, Virginie Barré, Romain Bobichon, Julien Gorgeart, La cascadeure, 2018 Julien Gorgeart

La cascadeure is also inspired by the historical avant-gardes that, in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, gave rise to artistic collaborations and collective works of great novelty, such as the realistic ballet in one act Parade (1917), written by Jean Cocteau, whose sets and costumes were created by Pablo Picasso and the music written by Érik Satie.

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The project La cascadeure is therefore a collective work, written, produced, and edited by a group of visual artists passionate about series, fantasy and the supernatural, gathered here both for their varied skills and their respective universes. From strange situations staged by Virginie Barré to the dark drawings of Olivier Nottellet, from the performances of Lili Reynaud Dewar to the pop aesthetics of Bruno Peinado’s sculptures, from ethereal watercolours by Julien Gorgeart to those of Camille Girard & Paul Brunet to Romain Bobichon’s paintings, from humorous objects by Florence Doléac to installations by Yoan Sorin… So many universes that open up the imagination.

Julien Gorgeart, Virginie Barré, Romain Bobichon, Julien Gorgeart, La cascadeure, 2018 Julien Gorgeart

Starting from a given situation and geography, the series La cascadeure is centred on a character, Amédée, who returns to her hometown after an accident that no longer allows her to exercise her profession as a stuntwoman. There she meets her mother and acquaintances who, as the episodes progress, become stranger and stranger. Unexplained phenomena, such as nightfall at any time of the day, occur. We then discover a sad personal past and a collective history marked by trauma…

With a surprising lightness and not without humour, the series gradually sinks into a paranormal — but realistic — world, until it finds itself totally immersed in it. It is therefore a question of shifting borders, parallel worlds, crossings, reversals and turn-overs.