Audience: Actors, performers, dancers, singers, musicians, visual artists
Clowning and the use of Tarot de Marseille, as we consider them, have in common a way of reactivating the depths of our personal stories and emotional experiences with the objective of translating them into forms of clown sketches, performative rituals or even ritual-clown performances.
Clowning techniques will reconnect us to the playfull and creative dimension of our childhood and enable everyone to display their comic potential.
We will start with the principle that the clown is an autonomous being, already present inside us. Totally different in appearance, but authentically within us..
Our work will consist of opening up to this by first opening up to the pleasure of being extreme and ridiculous.
The idea is not “to be” a clown, but “to let” the clown be himself.
We’ll meet this character through several steps, including:
– funny exercises focused on listening, empathy, amplifying emotional states …
– exercises on rhythm
– relating to the audience
– practicing « the flop » and associated vulnerability
– improvisations, solo or in groups around the concept of emergence: from simple and specific constraints, our strengths and abilities will appear as clearly as our tics and flaws, our clumsiness, our desires, our impulses, our fantasy … everything the clown delights in.
We will approach the Tarot of Marseille from a book of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Way of the Tarot. It will not be used as a divination tool but will be explored for its artistic, graphic and symbolic qualities.
Jodorowsky is the founder of the concept of theatrical and poetic act and one of the initiators of an original movement in the intersection between theater, performance and happening. For nearly thirty years, he devoted himself to a monumental research around the Tarot as an art.
« I imagined the thoughts, emotions, sexuality and actions of each figure. I made them pray, curse, make love, recite poetry, heale. « Jodorowsky.
Through the observation of the Arcanas, by sharing what they evoke in each of us and by studying the texts, we will wake up a primitive, extravagant and poetic imaginary world.
« When we memorize the Arcanas of the Tarot, they imprint themselves like tattoos in the unconscious mind where they join these images loaded with countless meanings that Jung called archetypes, that represent the various facets of our mysterious infinity … » Jodorowsky .
From guided improvisations aiming to explore the cards as interior mirrors, each participant will be asked to create a dramatic composition in their own style, adding or not their clownish touch (some Arcana work particularly well )
The Tarot of Marseille,
a powerful material serving creativity
The Tarot is essentially a projective tool where the eye will identify already known models and make the observer react firstly according to usual behavior patterns. For example, many people see the figure of death in Arcana XIII which is a skeleton. But by looking more closely, we realize that this is a living skeleton, active, a transforming force in motion. It is the same for all the major arcanas: some characters seem attractive, others repellent or unfriendly. One will remind us of a benevolent grandfather, the other of an overbearing boss, a beautiful mistress or a strict aunt.
To read the Arcanas, we must learn to see them in both their entirety and their smallest details. Thus, in the Arcana of the Hermit who holds an object in his hand, some might see a lamp, another will see an hourglass, others will see a jug of wine … Each symbol does not have a set explanation. This is not about finding its secret meaning but trying to give it its most sublime definition.
By training the skill of observation, we discover the extreme plasticity of the Tarot: at once clear and deep, linear and multi-dimensional, complex and playful … each card holds countless possibilities.
Hors-Bornes / Beyond Limits 