Le Théâtre des opérations - Le Voyage à Nantes
HÉLÈNE DELPRAT
From July 2 to September 11, 2022
Place Félix Fournier, Nantes
Hélène Delprat is an unclassifiable artist who defines herself as a painter. Yet her work touches on other fields while revealing questions of memory, travel and identity. Her art is the reign of extravagant, impenetrable dreams: a procession of surprises, excesses and disturbing fictions.
Hélène Delprat occupies Nantes like a theater, which she punctuates with elements of scenery for a story that freely draws its inspiration from the history of the city and many others.
On the Place Graslin, a star-island is occupied by the black silhouette of an angel with open arms and spread wings who declaims the murmur of the city in a large loudspeaker. A flag flutters in the wind. A little further on, the trident that disappeared from the fountain in Place Royale is replaced by another flag. Behind the stage, behind a large hanging decorated with interlocking patterns of heraldic inspiration, at the bottom of the square of the Saint-Nicolas basilica, a strange parade is taking place. Gigantic black silhouettes strut on another star that has become a theater stage.
"Annoying monkeys are looking for a fight, a goat is standing on its hind legs and nameless characters are escaping from a last judgment by bursting into laughter. A wolf master of ceremonies and his cane open a ball where animals, humans and hybrids do not know what to do. Is this star a raft, a Noah's ark stranded on the square of a basilica?
These characters gesticulate and parade in a kind of last disarticulated and agitated parade straight out of a dance of death. They invade the square and let the visitor enjoy their carnival presence. It is time for the masquerade, angels, wolf-men, monkeys call with their trunks to the gathering and the party.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
