vénus
a large-scale performance for the whole family
first presented as a moving procession through the city,
then as a stationary performance on a vast esplanade
Vénus tells the story of two journeys made by the same man, several decades apart. Two paths that overlap: the one he undertook when he was forced to leave his war-torn country, and the one he makes thirty years later to retrace the steps of his past.
Seated on the train carrying him back to his origins, the man relives the scenes of his exile: the walking, the running, the falling… not stopping, always moving forward. The two journeys collide with the force such displacements require. The impact is violent, and the fall inevitable.
More intimately, Vénus evokes the paths we all travel in our lives — those inner journeys shaped by conflict, flight, wandering, running and falling. The feeling of being a stranger to oneself, a clandestine presence in one’s own life. We must then retrace our steps, reopen our suitcases while keeping our eyes fixed on the horizon.
Created in 2012
Duration: 60 minutes
Artistic Director: Benoît Mousserion
Music Composer: Thomas Baudriller
Lighting Design and Operation: Mathieu Marquis
Pyrotechnics & SFX Design and Operation: Adrien Toulouse
General Stage Manager: Bérangère Pajaud
Vénus Puppeteers: Maïa Frey, Jean-Noël Prosper, François Martin, Sébastien Guillet, Murielle Vaïtinadapoullé, Florent Drouhin, Johan Pires, Laurent Boulé
Object Puppeteers: Bérangère Pajaud, Ludivine Rémi, Benjamin Ladladj
And so it is a man who stumbles, who kneels, who lets himself fall, who lowers himself, who collapses and then straightens up , who rises again.
Giants help us see farther, farther beyond borders, farther beyond ourselves.
I reject the idea that on one side there is light and on the other darkness, man and woman, myself and the other, good and evil. I seek a place where these contradictions can be resolved. It is a quest without illusion.
Mahmoud Darwich