artist Jonathan Salmon bets on failure and wins the game

LThe Coupe d’Or is a performance hall and a beautiful Italian-style theater, of course. But it is also an approved scene, therefore a place of cultural dissemination which nourishes artistic projects, in particular aimed at young audiences thanks to the “childhood, youth art” label. And the team has not forgotten that, given the specifications. After welcoming Odile Grosset-Grange and Simon Delattre as associate artists for four years, Jonathan Salmon takes over until 2028.

The artist from Val-de-Marne, both director and actor, has just arrived in Rochefort this week. If he accepted this collaboration between the Coupe d’Or and his company SCRAM (If you fall and start walking again), it’s because “young audiences are my hobby!” Politically, it is by sending messages to children and teenagers that we make things happen. » Indeed, this forty-year-old, father of three children, who also works with Olivier Le Tellier, director of Tréteaux de France (1), runs quite a few workshops in schools.

Young audience

But this is the first time that he is an artist associated with a theater. At the Coupe d’Or, for this first year, Jonathan Salmon will work with several classes from Rochefort and Échillais. The first meeting takes place this week and starts off strong: the students discover the show “FAIL (Go for it, advance, invincible loser!)”, written by Marjorie Fabre, performed by Charly Labourier and directed by Jonathan Salmon.

To get the young people in the mood, the play is performed… in a changing room at the Polygone. Why then? Firstly because the associated artist almost became a sports teacher, but above all “because in a locker room, we get naked, we are in an intimate atmosphere and we debrief on victory or defeat”, continues the one which seeks to put young audiences at ease by breaking down the cultural barriers that a theater can sometimes represent.

Failure, really?

And precisely, it is not a question of defeat, but of failure in this tale of drawers which is experienced live, but also with headphones for the sound ambiance. It’s the story of Noa, 12 years old, who to get by at school (or not) will have to make choices. And the young public votes to help them make decisions. It’s interactive, designed in video game mode and it works!

I started from the academic pressure which puts young people in competition to think about the power to get back up

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“I started from the fear of failure paralyzing many students, victims of academic pressure which puts young people in competition, to reflect on the power to get back up,” explains the artist who also works in other plays, on the power of resilience (“The Kingdom of Kensuké”) or the power of saying no (“Bite the Wolf” which will be released next year). In this mission “Save Noa, the champion of the loose”, it is therefore a question of superpowers. A clever way of making people understand that even failure can be an experience and that everyone has abilities, skills and talents, sometimes hidden, but the idea is to reveal them by gaining self-confidence.

Behind the story, Jonathan Salmon, for whom “art is political”, has an educational desire and sows seeds to get students to think about this question. And that’s what he did at the end of the performance by launching a discussion with the students: what is failure? Are we bad because we get bad grades? What does it mean to be intelligent? Do stupid people exist? Is it so bad to lose? And the students’ responses are surprisingly relevant. A debate that bodes well before the work that the artist will carry out with young people during this first trimester.

(1) The company supports the show “FAIL”.