In Plougasnou, students make a sea monster for the Bay of Books festival [En images]

Friday, November 8, the atmosphere is both studious and joyful in the CM2 class of the Plougasnou public school. Divided into groups of four or five, the students have an unusual activity on the program for the morning: the collective creation of a large sea monster. This project is part of the artist residencies which accompany the Bay of Books Youth Book Festival, on the theme of the underwater world.

“After having done preparatory research on the creatures of the abyss,” explains the teacher, Gwénaëlle Jacquenet, also a volunteer with the association, “the students tried their hand at the exercise of the exquisite corpse”.

A collective creation

The rest takes place during the plastic arts sessions led by the Lannion artist Brigit Ber, who was requested by the festival for her artistic universe. “I work a lot on vanities, chimeras, with corals, skeletons,” explains the visual artist. Things that can be a little scary…” but which fit – that's good – with the imagination of the sea monster.

A pair of scissors in one hand, photographic films in the other, she explains to the class how to go about it. “We create with recycled materials: these old photo negatives that I have already used before will become something else.” They are the raw material to make, based on the students' sketches, the template of the multi-headed monster that they imagined together.

Each group then gives free rein to their imagination. They cut, assemble, glue, to give shape to a part of the animal: here scales, a leg, there a head with nine eyes.” Then, thanks to the cyanotype technique, [NDLR. procédé photographique qui permet de créer des images monochromes bleues par exposition à la lumière]their creature will be revealed on a large fresco two meters long…