// PARTENAIRES PUBLICS
Région Grand Est
Département de la Marne
Ville de Reims
Ville de Charleville Mézières
La Fileuse-Friche artistique de Reims
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Research
One of the company’s major goals is to create the illusion of the living without actual living intervention. To that end, the company pursues a sensitive approach combining puppetry, film, new magic and new technology (incidentally, it received support from the CNC for the shows GIMME SHELTER and Nature Morte-Still Life). The artistic team is committed to creating the most compelling illusion in order to give the audience a unique and unsettling experience.
When building a piece, a substantial part of the preparation involves researching the feasibility of the movement and the self-contained quality of the creatures, which is made possible, in part, by the new connections generated by 3D printers and robotics.
VILLA ALBERTINE USA - RÉSIDENCE DE RECHERCHE MAI-JUIN 2024
The research project Invisible Awakening has been selected among 50 residency projects as part of the 2024 season of Villa Albertine. Three members of the company Yôkaï did a two-month research residency in May and June 2024 in New York and Los Angeles.
Largely modeled after the villa residencies for creators, thinkers and professionals in culture, such as Villa Medicis in Rome or Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, Villa Albertine has, for four years, opened a new chapter in the history of artist residencies in the United States. It offers artists customized residencies and connections with a US location of their choosing. Key cities for traveling or outdoors residencies include New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
This is the ideal setting to follow up on the research project Invisible Awakening, which began in New York and Los Angeles in September 2022. During that first trip, several members of the company Yôkaï met with key practitioners of invisible animation in film in order to adapt specific devices to hidden manipulation on the theater stage.
The residency in New York in 2024 enabled to develop the innovative Jumeau cachéTM/Hidden twinTM puppeteering device (trademark registered with INPI) and present it to several puppeteers working in the fields of performing arts and cinema. All approved of the prototype's resolutely original character. It allows Violaine Fimbel to take her imagination in a new direction from 2024 onwards, offering unique immersive experiences outdoor, and to participate in the renewal of puppetry and new magic art fields.
VILLA ALBERTINE // NEW YORK // RESIDENCE OF RESEARCH MAY-JUNE 2024
US Research trip
From September 3 through September 4, five members of the company Yôkaï went on a research trip to the US to study commonalities in the field of invisible animation in film and theater. They met the team of creature supervisors from the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Los Angeles, creature designers and movie VFX artists as well as live performance puppeteers based in New York and Los Angeles.