ITW Radio France Culture - On tour, connected sound object theater for young and old.
Meeting with Céline Garnavault, creator of the company La Boite à sel, which operates in the very unique field of connected object theater and has been working for years to offer intergenerational performances accessible to everyone. Arnaud Laporte speaks with director and puppeteer Céline Garnavault, creator of La Boite à sel, who presents several plays on tour. Among them, BLOCK and TRACK, as well as BAD BLOCK, created at the end of her residency at GLOB in Bordeaux, as well as ANATOMIE and LES INVITÉ.ES.
Founded in Bordeaux in October 2000, the company La Boite à sel already has eighteen creations to its credit, distributed internationally, including installations and performances that invite drawing, sound, and new technologies, as well as long-term proposals involving audiences and their territories. Céline Garnavault creates performances with a unique scenic language: object theater, and more specifically connected objects since she has been working in duo with sound artist and creator Thomas Sillard.
"Our work is to create tools that allow us to materialize sound, to make it truly physical, concrete, tangible, and very playful, and to write with these tools narratives or sensory experiences. All these tools, all these objects that we call blocks or modules, gradually give rise to slightly crazy poetic microcosms. And from these microcosms, we invite the audience to experiment with us different forms of relationship to the world, to very multiple worlds ultimately, and to shift our perspectives, learning to step aside a bit," Céline Garnavault.In their research around this medium that is connected sound object theater, sound is often the driving force of the performances, when it is not the very subject, as in Revers and Le Grand Chut. Listening to things to better listen to the world, this is in a few words the poetics of the connected object theater of La Boîte à sel.
Track is one of their touring performances: "In 'Track', we see a man making sounds with his mouth. A marginal man, surely alone, who enters with a small train under his arm, then places it on a giant circuit. And little by little, he adds sound effects, meaning he records his voice with a small remote control like Gondry and places the sounds in small modules that he puts on trains, which in turn start to circulate the sound, the sound effects, universes, and soundscapes all around him.
In 'Track', we write an adventure of sounds in motion, a circuit that awakens, comes to life, and allows this character, little by little, to shift into an almost wonderful world, in any case into a letting go that is beneficial for him," Céline Garnavault.
Another fundamental specificity of the company: the desire to make the demands of artistic research accessible to everyone, through performances that are accessible and especially intergenerational. Contrary to the preconceived notions that still surround projects aimed at young audiences, Céline Garnavault advocates for innovative forms for all age groups (their next creation will target teenagers and adults), and insists that each performance be equally enjoyable for adults.The website of the company La Boîte à sel.
More information about the touring performances of La Boîte à Sel:
BLOCK - Theater of connected sound objects - All audiences from 3 years old
- From April 26 to 28, 2023 > Espace Treulon / BRUGES (33)
- From May 2 to 5, 2023 > La Loco / MEZIDON-CANON (14)
- May 26 and 27, 2023 > Theater Nod - Festival Sněz tu žàbu - PRAGUE - Czech Republic
TRACK - Theater, connected sound objects, small trains, human beatbox - All audiences from 3 years old- From April 14 to 17, 2023 > Centre des Arts / ENGHIEN-LES-BAINS (95)
- From May 2 to 5, 2023 > L'entracte / SABLÉ-SUR-SARTHE (72)
- From May 15 to 27, 2023 > Théâtre d'Ivry Antoine Vitez / IVRY-SUR-SEINE (94)
- From June 3 to 7, 2023 > Le Kiosque / MAYENNE (53)
- At the studio of the Philharmonie de Paris in 2024
BAD BLOCK - Immersive and interactive theater of connected sound objects - All audiences from 15 years old
- May 10 to 12, 2023 > Public experiences - La Mégisserie - Conventioned stage / SAINT JUNIEN (87)
ANATOMIE - Research laboratory on the materialization of our emotions through the tools of connected sound object theater- From July 1 to 6, 2023 > Université du Québec à Montréal - UQAM / Montreal
LES INVITÉ.ES - Living objects - research creation with the inhabitants of Tourville sur Arques - All audiences from 3 years old- On June 24, 2023 > final restitution of the territorial residency project in Tourville sur Arques (76) with DSN-Dieppe Scène Nationale
