- Turun Sanomat 7.11.2014, by Anniina Karhu /Finlande 2015

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A Rugged But Beautiful Transformation

The first performance of this years TIP-fest was Volatiles by Violaine Fimbel. Volatiles is described as a broken memory of a 5 year old child. The child’s father was kidnapped and as a result the mother became so upset that she turned into a bird. The performance shows strong images, sounds and moods that intensely focus on this painful transformation. The imagery includes several bird-like elements including a large feathery wing, a bird’s head mask, small bird characters and voices that sound like flaps in a closed space. The bird is seen as symbol of a person’s spirit that has broken free of the body. The ability to fly is the possibility to move on to the other side. The bird is somehow a symbol of the divine in a human being. The most dramatic element of the performance is the life size figure of a woman fallen on her knees — the mother’s body. You can see this body as a leafless tree, which has already started to decay with bloody branches growing out of it. I see the imagery suggesting that the mother has faced a slow and a violent transformation, maybe a suicide. In one scene some small birds — the mother’s spirit — are sitting on the branches of the tree, with the tree picking them up and putting them inside it. The hole is placed just where the heart should be. This suggests me that the spirit is still not free to leave it’s earthly form, rather it is still stuck in a space between this world and the other side. Peressoni and Serodio manipulate the puppets and objects with a magical feel. Various levels in the dynamics between the puppeteers and the puppets make the performance more surprising. For example when the puppeteer lends her hand to the puppet, it seems as the performer and the object become one. In other scenes the physical distance between performers and objects is widened with a help of various tools. The imagery is rugged, beautiful and evocative. The themes of loss and transformation are dealt with concrete images that you can easily relate to.

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- Review by Romke Gabe Draaijer/ Iida Puppet Festa/Japon 2016     

   

　The first performance I saw was ‘Volatiles’ by the French group Compagnie Yokai led by Violaine Fimbel. In short, the performance was about a woman full of sorrow who transformed into a bird, which symbolized freedom. The 45-minute performance brought me in a melancholy trance-like state. The slow, but powerful images allowed me to experience the transformation from human to bird, which was incredibly intense. Fimbel plays with imagery, light and illusions, which was quite interesting. This was a good start of the festival!

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- Review by Duda Paiva/Brasil

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During the FMTM 2015, I attended the show Volatiles from french company Yokaï. Within the 45 minutes of the show I was surprised by the strong visual impact. Yokai challenges the audience with a slow tempo that brought me to Kazuo -Ohno’s philosophycal butoh. With precise light design,  Volatiles tricks the eyes of the public, sufing from very associative images into morbid and melancholic atmosphere. The presence of actor Evandro Serodio adds a rare and silent intensity that we dont know if he will caress or devour the shoul of whom is watching.There is something special about Yokai, worth keeping an eye on the director Violaine Fimbel , she has something special to say.