À vau-l'eau – 2026 Creation
After a year of research laboratories exploring the notion of time, as part of the En recherche programme with Le Parapluie – CNAREP Aurillac, the creation of À vau-l'eau gradually began to take shape in our minds. Research residencies combining art and science at ENSMA – Institut Pprime – CNRS – University of Poitiers have allowed us to refine our ideas around flame, light and shadow play.
In October 2025, a writing residency took place in the village of Sansais (Deux-Sèvres), in partnership with the Marais Poitevin Regional Natural Park. This marked the project's first connection with a specific territory and the first words written for À vau-l'eau.
In February 2026, we happily returned to Le Parapluie – CNAREP Aurillac for a creation residency. We invited Blue Montagne (Les Anges au Plafond, ...) to join us as an external puppetry eye – a collaboration that opened up new perspectives on the way objects can inhabit space.
Two further residencies in spring 2026 at our former dairy building in Saint-Christophe-sur-Roc supported our collective creative process, as usual centred around spatial writing, construction, flame and its energy, and movement. The full team – seven artists with their heads in the clouds (one musician and six machine artists) – was able to bring the scenography to life at night, under real performance conditions.
À vau-l'eau is an invitation to experience the lightness of chance for 3,600 seconds. A seated audience, at night, facing rickety machines bathed in the softness and glow of our flames. A constantly evolving scenography, where every manipulation of an object leads the eye towards the dreamlike world that is so dear to us. Appearances and disappearances, shadows and sudden emergences – like clouds that we slowly learn to read.
À vau-l'eau plays with unpredictability, with strange detours that divert us from the symbolic straight line of time. The impermanence of things makes us look up. Let us be carefree and irreverent.
This creation will be presented for the first time as a experience on 12 June 2026 at Le Fourneau – CNAREP Brest, before continuing its journey through further residencies during 2026.
À vau-l'eau is produced by Compagnie Carabosse, in co-production with Le Parapluie – CNAREP Aurillac, ENSMA–CNRS–University of Poitiers, and Le Fourneau – CNAREP Brest.
Production support: the municipality of Sansais and the Marais Poitevin Regional Natural Park.
Financial support: DGCA – French Ministry of Culture – Creation Grant (pending confirmation).
