Tiago Rodrigues does it again. One year after inviting Julie Deliquet to create her show Welfare in the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes, the director of the Avignon Festival invites two female artists to take their turn on the prestigious stage. With the Spaniard Angelica Liddell (Dämon. Bergman’s funeral) and the Polish Marta Gornicka (Mothers. A Song for Wartime), the Festival puts an end to decades of male occupation of the premises. The 2024 edition of the event will be that of a wave of directors who, from the Court to the FabricA, via the rooms of Vedène or the Gymnasium of the Aubanel high school, will bend the square meters to their aesthetics.
In France, their ability to take over the big stages now seems to be established, even if it took a long time to establish itself. “Apart from Ariane Mnouchkine, we had few examples before our eyes, testifies Caroline Guiela Nguyen. This rarity boomeranged the question of our legitimacy back to us. » At 42, the director belongs to a generation that had to prove itself before conquering more space. His first show was given on the small stage of the Théâtre de la Colline, in Paris. “Obviously I had to start there, since I represented the emergence, she says ironically, welcoming Tiago Rodrigues’ initiative. It takes exemplary acts like hers for women to understand what they are capable of.” With Tear, presented at the Aubanel Gymnase, it takes over a stage 18 meters wide and 15 meters deep to develop an astonishing subject: the embroidery of the wedding dress of the Queen of England.
If she had to cite only one image of her representation, it would be “that of the hands of the craftsman who sews 2,500,000 pearls on satin”. The detail to express humanity, the scale of a place to accommodate the diversity of stories and beings: the large stage is, for Caroline Guiela Nguyen, the place of hospitality before being that of power. It is also not certain that she would accept the Court of Honor. In any case, not right away: “I make black boxes, I need to master every millimeter. For the moment, my representations reject the open air or the song of birds at nightfall. »
Pink fabric cathedral
Make no mistake. Women do not have a compelling need for excess to assert their authority or their artistic power. A relative detachment which, casually, disinhibits their approach to the boards. Ten years ago, Lorraine de Sagazan debuted in the tiny Théâtre de Belleville, in Paris. “I arrived ten years after a generation of women who were able to stick together and settle down. The battle now seems won to me, even if there are still battles to be fought. And even if we demand from us, undoubtedly more than from men, a form of excellence. » Now aged 37, she creates at the Aubanel Gymnase Leviathana show that will be revived in 2025 at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe. A move upmarket whose tempo she has mastered. “I was lucky, things happened gradually, I was able to gradually increase my abilities.”
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