Cabaret Sommes
Les Abattoirs invites Cabaret Sommes for a special performance in the heart of the museum, halfway between burlesque theatre and performance art.
Cabaret Sommes was conceived as a visual and performative art form, a living tableau in which artists dance within the images to their heart's content. This collective work, conceived by artists Emilie Franceschin, Laura Freeth, Nicolas Puyjalon, Juliette Pym and Jérôme Souillot, is inspired by the experience of half-sleep and invites us to explore those memories of shapes that appear in the mind, as if caught, incomplete or distorted by afterimages.
Les Abattoirs is dedicating this evening to our colleague William Gourdin (1970–2024), who was responsible for promoting exhibitions and initiatives in the region and who supported this artistic venture from its inception, organising its first presentation in this form at the IPN and TA workshops in 2024.
Cabaret Sommes was born from artist Jérôme Souillot's initiative to physically inhabit a set designed in collaboration with Laura Freeth. Created using a system of movable curtains, the set consists of paintings on wood entitled Les Sommes. These are images that emerge during light sleep, from memory or from what remains under the skin of the eyes. It is a collection, a stockpile of objects painted like traces.
Cabaret Sommes is an evolving project that changes with each encounter and opportunity. Initially conceived as a stage design, this set first appeared in exhibition form at the Chapelle des Cordeliers in Toulouse in 2022, brought to life by artists Nicolas Puyjalon and Emilie Franceschin. Following a residency at the Collectif IPN, then at the BBB (Toulouse), this stage set took the form of a cabaret, in which characters evolve. This name evokes a flexible form, which also allows for the creation of acts related to the artistic concerns of each of the artists, while playing with the elements of the set.
Details:
Born in 1983, Emilie Franceschin is an artist working in the field of performance. Her practice is always unique and designed for the spaces in which she performs. She has also created a body of drawings and visual art based on the traces and objects that remain visible and preserved after her performances.
Her performance work has been presented in museums and art centres, including the Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse, the Musée Calbet in Grisolles, the Abbaye de Beaulieu Centre des Monuments Nationaux, and the Lieu-Commun artist-run space, as well as in galleries such as Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris for Jeune Création, Galerie Les Territoires in Montreal, Galerie Metaxu in Toulon, and Galerie Am Eck in Düsseldorf. She has also participated in numerous international performance festivals such as AcciònMad in Madrid, Fima in Montreal, Frasq at Le Générateur in Paris, MoviImentale in Naples, Performance Space in London, and others.
https://emiliefranceschin.tumblr.com/
It was during her studies at the Toulouse School of Fine Arts, from which she graduated in 2013, that Laura Freeth participated in the creation of the IPN Collective, an independent workshop shared by around thirty people with complementary practices. They print, renovate, sculpt, exhibit, perform and work together. Through various media, including moulding, assemblage, imprinting, printing and construction, she seeks to reveal experiences of places and creations, to disclose clues and details. This takes place in the home, in the studio, in the car, in the exhibition space and in the landscape.
She is inspired by collaborations such as those with Kévin Chrismann on the Creuser project and with Jérôme Souillot, Nicolas Puyjalon, Emilie Franceschin and Juliette Pym on the Cabaret Sommes project.
Holder of the AIC DRAC Occitanie (2020), Nicolas Puyjalon's practice is essentially focused on performance and writing. Failure, absurdity, clumsiness, the ridiculous... are all themes that run through his work with humour and poetry. He collects, cuts and assembles fragments of recycled materials to create makeshift sets for his stories.
After graduating from L'Isdat in 2009 (DNSEP), he moved to Berlin. He also develops work with others, often in duos, such as with Zabo Chabiland, Estelle Vernay, Emilie Franceschin and Leila Peacock. More recently, he encountered clowning with Clémence Caillouel. A clown in search of resonance, vulnerable, with whom he has since explored his relationship to the body, food and the question of traces, of what cannot be transmitted: the memories, places, language and rituals of the queer community.
His performances have been presented in institutions such as the Chapelle Saint Jacques contemporary art centre (2023), the Palais de Tokyo (2017), the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (2013), as well as at numerous festivals in France and internationally. Recently, his work was exhibited at the Maison Salvan (2024).
https://ddaoccitanie.org/fr/artistes/nicolas-puyjalon/oeuvres
Juliette Pym is a musician. After completing her university studies and gaining various professional experiences in contemporary art (as a mediator, lecturer, author of theoretical and critical texts, and trainer and mentor for artists), she has been developing musical projects since 2019 that oscillate between the worlds of contemporary music and visual arts, and between self-organised spaces and institutional venues. She is a member of the DIY bands Générique Mardi (lo-fi pop/dark pop) and F.R.B. (kraut dance). In 2024, she joined the Parcours d'Artiste training programme at Octopus - Fédération des musiques actuelles en Occitanie, in order to structure these projects and develop her activity as a musician, to which she adds sound creation projects in collaboration with other artists and visual artists.
https://www.instagram.com/_laura_bolt_/
Jérôme Souillot, visual artist and set designer. Lives and works in Toulouse. His pictorial work focuses on collecting, creating and compiling images that originate in thought, memory or dreams. These images and installations are made up of a multitude of elements that compose mental landscapes in which the viewer is invited to lose themselves and interact.
After studying graphic design in Pau, he joined the theatre company Parlez moi d'amour, directed by Claude Bardouil, in 1998 as an actor and dancer for five years. He created the scenography for ‘Désastre ou la fascination du pire’ and then collaborated with Coraline Lamaison on the trilogy of choreographic pieces ‘Extase’. It is as a visual artist that he approaches scenography, responding to the questions posed by directors and choreographers in a desire for a physical and active relationship with the set and objects.