DIRECTOR, ARTISTIC DIRECTION
CHRISTOPHE EVETTE
Christophe EVETTE, visual artist and puppeteer, has created and exhibited sculptures and polychrome bas-reliefs about people, their families, and the place devoted to them in contemporary cities. In search of popular fields of expression for sculpture, he has created puppet shows and objects, first with the Agitez le Bestiaire company, then with Les Grandes Personnes since its creation in 1998. He is fascinated with papiers mâché.
DIRECTOR, STAGE MANAGER
PAULINE DE COULHAC
Pauline de Coulhac is an actor and director. She works with masks and theatre objects as well as more textual forms within various companies. In residence at the Villa Mais d’Ici with her company La Tribu–Collectif Poussière, she joined Les Grandes Personnes company in 2003 and participates in collective creations as both stage manager and director, in France and abroad.
SCENOGRAPHY, TEXTILE SCULPTURE
FLEUR MARIE FUENTES
As a visual artist, stage designer and costume designer, Fleur Marie Fuentes has been working in the performing arts since 1983 in France and elsewhere. She has collaborated with the scenographer André Acquart and companies including the Teatro del silencio and the Cie Maguy Marin. She joined the LGP collective in 2000 for the creation and manipulation of puppets. She has been exhibiting her sculptures, art textile and paintings since 1990.
AUTHOR
JEAN-BAPTISTE EVETTE
Jean-Baptiste Evette is a translator and novelist: most recent novels published À la poursuite de l’enfantôme (Gallimard jeunesse) and Tuer Napoléon III (Plon). A reader of mainstream novels, but also Queneau, Michaux and Ponge, he often conducts writing workshops and has taught at the IUT publishing metiers in Saint-Cloud. For Les Grandes Personnes, he has written street shows the Yellow Line about the life and struggles of workers in a Renault factory, and The Balance on the last decade of the death penalty.
To speak about writing, he often resorts to the metaphor of a laboratory. For him, Baron Frankenstein’s story is a magnificent image of literary creation, due to its use of hybrids, borrowings, sub-texts and sometimes surprising results.
http://www.jean-baptiste-evette.fr
MANIPULATION, ACTOR
CLAUDE MAURICE BAILLE known as CLOD MO
Clod Mo also known as Claude Maurice Baille, ex-acrobat and current juggler, manipulator of giant puppets and stilts trained at the Académie Fratellini, the Radka Riaskova workshop and with Carlos Bosso!
He has worked and travelled with circuses and street shows, from Tahiti to the Oposito company, from the Archaos circus to Cuba, from Burkina to Bouglione, from Coline Serraut to Iran, from Russia to Les Grandes Personnes company.
He has also staged various shows (Idéerapp, Clodmaux, Pouetpouett, Alfredo et Valentina, Mystère M’Buss) and taught acrobatics and stilt-walking all over the world. In addition, he has opened various venues for rehearsal and training, including Pole Pi, Sainte-Geneviève and La Gare.
MANIPULATION, ACTOR
RAPHAËLE TRUGNAN
Raphaële Trugnan is a jack-of-all-trades type of actor. She has tried both theatre and puppetry, by way of street arts and performance.
In 2005, she met Les Grandes Personnes company (giant puppets) and Méliadès (installation-itinerary) and has since participated in most of their creations.
She also works with the Anges Mi-Chus (tragi-burlesque theatre) and Epaulé-Jeté (auteur theatre) companies. From time to time she directs theatrical practice workshops for various structures (Théâtre de l’Envol, Méliadès, Théâtre de la Commune…)
She has created shows with the Compagnie du Fil (Burkina Faso), Lez’armuses, La Fine Compagnie (with whom she co-signed two shows), Sonia Ristíc, Marc Soriano, Evelyne Fagnen…
MANIPULATION, ACTOR
SÉVANE SYBESMA
Sévane Sybesma is an actor and director. She works with various companies as an actor using visual forms that mix objects, puppets and text. She joined Les Grandes Personnes in 2010 where she plays in various creations and participates in the staging of Ancestors. After having co-founded her company, Rêve Mobile, she directed Papiers d’ Arménie ou sans retour possible by Caroline Safarian (finalist in the young directors’ competition at the théâtre 13) and Les Pavés de Syntagma by Louise Caron as part of the Tuesday noon programmes at the théâtre 13.
CONSTRUCTION AND MECHANISMS
MAURIZIO MORETTI
After training as an engineer, Maurizio Moretti became a constructer of manipulable mechanical structures. He is fascinated by the possibility of recreating animals’ natural movements through mechanical structures. By studying nature he seeks the perfect balance between technical necessities, realism and the beauty of manipulation. He is also a puppeteer, when the opportunity arises.
AUTOMATONS AND MECHANISMS
NICOLAS VUILLIER
Nicolas Vuillier has been fabricating automatons and machinery for several years. His inventive and very personal universe allows him to create out-of-the-ordinary objects and characters that he has dubbed “Automatons with restricted mobility”. In 2006 he founded the company Les Petits Zefs with which he mounts in-and-out puppeteer street performances as well as animated object and automaton shows in theatres. Since 2001, he has been designing various mechanisms and technical devices for Les Grandes Personnes, including the lighting design for the luminous puppets of the Allebrilles show (Fête des Lumières Lyon 2013). He also works with other companies such as Méliadès, La Tribu Collectif Poussière, Les Anges Mi-Chus and Rêve Mobile. He has been a permanent resident artist at the Villa Mais d’Ici since the collective’s creation.
FRAMEWORK AND MANIPULATION
YOANN COTTET
Yoann COTTET is a puppeteer and constructor for live performances. Since 2006 he has worked alongside Les Grandes Personnes company, where he builds giant puppets, especially their piano string frameworks and articulations. He is also a manipulator in various performances and participates in training workshops. He collaborates with Les Estropiés company and La Fine Compagnie as a scenographer and accessory designer, as well as an actor-puppeteer. He has also been working since 2015 with the Décor Sonore company. He designs and makes puppets and accessories for La Scène Infernale collective, Des Petits Pas dans les Grands company, as well as creating series of masks for the musician Féloche. He also built structures and mechanisms for the latest creation of Les Goulus company.
DESIGNER, WOOD CONSTRUCTION
JEAN MARTIN
Jean Martin studied industrial design at the École St-Luc in Liège. After having created toy-sculptures, he developed “PHM5”, a patented construction process with a wood frame with which 1,200 housing units were built. Between 1986 and 1992, he worked on the rehabilitation of public housing and the development of industrial products related to construction. He then designed and created temporary sets for events (WAB and ANATOME, Haute Couture, Conventions), along with theatre and film sets.
ADMINISTRATION, PRODUCTION
ANNE GABLIN
Anne Gablin first encountered Les Grandes Personnes of Boromo, while working at the Institut Français of Ouagadougou. On her return to France, she assisted the production team of the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, then joined the Grandes Personnes where she handles administration, production and development of the company’s activities
ADMINISTRATION, PRODUCTION
LAURE LOUVAT
Laure Louvat works in management and the company’s development, as well as some production and international tours. She directed the artistic practice workshops of the Banlieues Bleues jazz festival for 5 years and has been the tour and production manager for various companies and festivals (3D Family, Clap Noir, Festival de l’Oh, the Dynamo de Banlieues Bleues, the Compagnie Faso Danse Théâtre, the Compagnie de Soi…).
ADMINISTRATION
NATHALIE CLERAULT
Administrator since June 2016 at the Compagnie des Grandes Personnes, she has a long experience as a project manager and in training coordination for structures coming from community education and major associative federations.
She met the company in 2004 while she was directing Calypsociation, a steelband-school with which Les Grandes Personnes has collaborated several times.
SCULPTOR
YABAKO KONATE
Heir to a rich Bwa tradition, Yabako Konaté is a sculptor, blacksmith and maker of traditional masks and puppets. Trained by his older brother, the sculptor Bomavé Konaté, who in 2015 was named a national living treasure of Burkina Faso, he is a native of Oury in Burkina Faso where the largest traditional forge in activity in West Africa is located. For several years he has lived in France where he pursues new modes of artistic practice. He sculpts on an adze, and works with clay, bronze and papier mâché. As part of Les Grandes Personnes, he sculpts and manipulates giant puppets and other theatrical objects.
VISUAL ARTIST, PUPPETEER
MATISSE WESSELS
Matisse Wessels is a visual artist and puppeteer, with a diploma in scenography from the ENSAD.
Inspired by the possible alliance between construction, the morphology of structures and movement, her artistic experiments with mechanisms and materials have naturally led her to puppets.
Minuscule or monumental, her creations often bear the stamp of Roland Topor’s black humour.
She builds sets and accessories. Fascinated by morphostructures, she creates and manipulates puppets for multiple venues, street theatre, the circus and animated cinema. She expresses her polyvalence within various theatrical companies including “La Machine” for Royal de luxe, “Images et mouvements” for the Guignols de l’info, Cie Philippe Genty, Théâtre sans toit…
Since 2008 she has worked with Les Grandes Personnes mainly by conducting giant puppet-making workshops.
http://www.matissewessels.eu/
VISUAL ARTIST, TAPESTRY-MAKER
CHLOÉ BUCAS
Chloé Bucas is a visual artist using various techniques (tapestry, millinery). She met Les Grandes Personnes in 2008, while a trumpet player in Les Lapins Superstars band, and since then she has participated in artistic creations (piano-string structures, sculptures, masks, papier mâché, painting) and manipulates giant puppets for the company.
She works on the fabrication of various sets for Le Théâtre du Soleil, Les Goulus, Décor sonore (portable kaleidophones) cinema (Les Rencontres d’après minuit by Yann Gonzalez; Le Collectionneur by Ianis Guererro.)
Since 2012 she has been a permanent resident artist at the Villa Mais D’ici.
VISUAL ARTIST, ILLUSTRATOR
AUDE MEESCHAERT
Aude Meeschaert aka Meescat is a graphic artist and designer. Trained successively at the École Pivaut in Nantes and at the École Émile Cohl in Lyon, she is specialised in traditional pictorial techniques.
For Les Grandes Personnes, she has created project drawings and posters, but also puppets, accessories and stage sets.
A freelancer in the field of visual arts, Meescat is currently a fresco painter for the Paint A Smile foundation, working in paediatric services of European hospitals.
http://www.meescat.com/
VISUAL ARTIST, ILLUSTRATOR
SARAH LETOUZEY
Sarah Letouzey, a visual artist, is a graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs of Paris. Specialised in illustration, she is the author of children’s and young adult books as well as travel books.
Many of Les Grandes Personnes giant puppets bear the stamp of her artistic vision.
VISUAL ARTIST, ILLUSTRATOR
AMORA DORIS
Amora Doris is a painter and visual artist. She studied graphic design and illustration at the Académie Charpentier and the EMSAT.
Since then she has split her professional activity between spectacle (theatre, advertising, cinema…) and major brands such as Nature et Découvertes.
She joined the team of Les Grandes Personnes in 2011, sharing their love of paper and cardboard.
She likes to work with her favourite materials in all of their various forms: folding, paper mechanisms (pop-up), cut-outs, collage, papier mâché, stencils…
Her taste for optical illusion and her qualities as a trompe-l’œil painter, account for the originality of her personal work.
Her anamorphic bas-reliefs in papier mâché are regularly exhibited during biennials, contemporary art shows and group exhibitions.
VISUAL ARTIST, PUPPETEER
LAURE BOUCHEREAU
After graduating from the ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres in Paris in 2006, Laure Bouchereau began by the fabrication of sets and accessories in various workshops as well as audio-visual and museum projects.
In 2009, she encountered the Compagnie La Madone des Sleepings; she immediately fell in love with the performing arts and has since collaborated with several companies: Ma Super Compagnie, Les Muettes Bavardes, les Grandes Personnes, Friches théâtre urbain, Le Risorius, Art Métisse, Meliadès for whom she designs and build sets, accessories, images, illustrations and puppets.
This experience led her to also conduct fabrication workshops and training courses adapted to diverse participants in varying structures (theatres, festivals, prisons, media libraries, schools…)
In 2015, she took part in an internship at the Compagnie Philippe Genty.
http://laurebouchereau.wix.com/laurebouchereau
STAGE MANAGER, ACTOR
CAROLINE BRILLON
Caroline Brillon is a cultural projects initiator, polyvalent artist, co-founder of the Caribou company.
Coming from scientific and technical mediation and holding a DESS in “Cultural and Tourist Development”, she has been involved in many projects combining public space, cultural events and citizen action (Jours de Fête, which she co-founded in 2004, Festival de l’Oh ! Tumultes, Barbès Tour…).
In 2007, she founded the Caribou company along with Ibrahim Nouhi to develop original artistic and citizen projects. She fosters multidisciplinary skills: conception, production and coordination of shows and events, acting, artistic creations… At the same time, she sets up logistical solutions for eco-friendly events, for the platform Ecoévénements en Picardie and the Centre de Formation aux Techniques du Spectacle Vivant (CFPTS).
Since 2013, after various encounters with Les Grandes Personnes company, Caroline has also been involved in the collective as a puppeteer and stage manager.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
AMANDINE GUILLARD
Amandine Guillard is a graphic designer and works on the conception of books and graphic identities in France and Quebec. She collaborates with various art and history museums, publishing houses, performing arts companies and research groups, notably in women’s studies. She encountered Les Grandes Personnes when involved in the overhaul of their graphic identity and the Grands Papiers project.
COSTUMES
PATRICIO LUENGO
COSTUMES, TAPESTRY-MAKER, COOK
BABETTE MARTIN
After having worked as a nurse and raised seven children in the Tarn countryside, Babette Martin became a tapestry-maker, costume designer and decorator in fashion and event planning. She worked on the first Carnavalcade with Mokeït, Melik Ouzani and Hervé Di Rosa. She participated in the creation of Les Grandes Personnes and in 1999 settled in Aubervilliers where she joined François Verret’s team at the Laboratoires. Along with Jean Martin, François Hubert and Christophe Evette she launched the creation of the Villa Mais d’Ici, of which she would be president for over ten years.
THANK-YOUS
We would like to thank Anne Champion, François Lissarrague, Bomavé Konaté, Eric Monti, Paula Chamand de Christol, Nicole Bienfait, Dominique Beaux, Nathalie Milan, Martin Meppiel, Corinne Solini, Laurent Clavel, Nathalie Cixous, Mireille Odena, Frank Oettgen, Eric Mussat, Bernard Souroque and Jean-Claude Chaunac
