Cartes blanches #1 MARGINALIA

From the purity of angels to the defilement of the world (or vice versa, we’re not quite sure)

With a playful perspective that goes against the grain of negative and reactionary images of the Middle Ages, this show is inspired by illuminations from the 13th and 14th centuries in Europe, inviting us to step into a world on the margins, populated by forgotten, hybrid and strange creatures. Saint Agnes, the hairy saint, emerges from her central miniature to discover the margins and their inhabitants, profane and hybrid beings who will accompany her in her quest to find her rightful place on the page. Summoned by the marginalia, drawings traced by the copyist in the margins of a handwritten text, a whole parallel world comes to life before our eyes, inviting us to change our perspective, to decentre our gaze, to think about our own positions between our margins and our centres.

Collective writing; Direction: Mathilde Peinetti; Assistant director: Camille Marcon; Performers: Elise Cornille, Camille Marcon, Pierre Lac and Lucas Sivignon; Puppet and set construction supervision: Elise Cornille; Construction: Elise Cornille, Pierre Lac, Camille Marcon, Mathilde Peinetti and Lucas Sivignon; Lighting design: Antoine Lenoir; Hurdy-gurdy manufacture: Florine Vilain; Thanks to Manuel Dias, Christiane De Meyer and to entreprise Smurfit Kappa Rethel; Illustration: Miniature from the Legenda Aurea, Jacques de Voragine, KBR, Brussels; With the support of La Main Tenant.

Carte Blanche, end-of-studies project produced as part of the 3rd year at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette.