Portrait de l’artiste en ermite ornemental

What a strange title! What if ornaments opened a door onto something essential? Such is Patrick Corillon’s daily experience. Transforming what could be little more than anecdotes, the Belgian plastic artist and storyteller creates fictions in which the world becomes populated by objects considered as living beings. “Donner sa langue au chat”* is enough to lead us into reveries that bring to mind scenes from childhood. Spectators become his accomplices on this imaginary journey and are invited to manipulate game boards which will lead them into flights of fancy and enable them to look the real world in the eyes. Patrick Corillon takes us on a great journey through literature and history. A creation in situ conceived for the Pénitents blancs as an homage to this place so conducive to meditation and to the long moments of reflection artistic processes sometimes require. 

 *literally, “to give one’s tongue to the cat”: to give up, especially in the context of a guessing game 

Jouons avec l'ermite ornemental, by Patrick Corrillon, is published by Le Corridor.

The stories told are not the same depending on the show:

July 6,7 and 8:

• L'appartement à trous

• Le Voyage de la Flaque

July 10,11 and 12 :

• Les Images Flottantes

• Le Dessous-Dessus

The flat with holes

Through the adventures of a young man who is curious about everything, the spectator discovers the mythical nature of the origin of languages. Polish, for example, is said to be the language of leaves. In Poland, trees are such an important part of society that language is seen as an imitation of rustling leaves. English, with its highs and lows, is the language with the widest sound spectrum. Its vibrations are so strong that, of all the languages spoken on earth, it alone can have an impact on rock. Think about it: what you say in English is lodged in the stone. A thousand years from now, something will still remember what you said in English. 

In life, you have to be like a cat," my grandmother used to tell me. A cat listens to what you tell it, it doesn't judge, it purrs and leads its inner life. And then, on the other hand, when you have something to say, something that's particularly close to your heart, you tell your cat. He'll listen to you without batting an eyelid, and then he'll take all your words with him into his inner life. It's a bit like putting your words in the bank. The difference is that once you've deposited them, you can't take them back; they'll grow in the cat's life at a rate you don't know. And when your cat dies, you'll bury it, and flowers or weeds will grow over it."

The journey of the puddle

In a marsh that gets drier every year, a puddle (which just the day before was a pond and the day before that a pond) cannot resign itself to passively living through its own disappearance.

"Unlike the others, he was well aware of the profound nature of this shaggy-haired beast: it was he who, every evening, through his disturbing eyes, brought the nightmares of the night. Nightmares about falling into huge holes, getting lost in swamps or deep forests. And when you want to take refuge in a garden, you're devoured by huge statues that turn you into stone. It was time to take matters into our own hands and confront the night animal.

Floating images

A child who is mad about theatre and painting is so used to travelling in his head that he finds it increasingly difficult to make contact with other people. But thanks to a survival course in an old mushroom farm, he manages to straddle the border between the imaginary and real worlds.

"Weave!" While the others were squirming around like confused caterpillars, we had very quickly attained the skill of experienced silkworms. "Tense up!" To make us feel like a canvas stretched over a frame, the afternoon was devoted to stretching exercises. "Comb your hair! Even if this caused a terrible tickle in those being painted, we were forbidden to let out the slightest laugh. "Hang on! After five minutes, we had turned blue. "Store yourselves! At the back of the storeroom, we were lined up against each other, arms and hands by our sides, eyes closed. We weren't supposed to think about anything.

Le dessous-dessus

C’est le voyage initiatique d’un ver de terre qui, le corps englué dans une nappe d’huile de schiste fracturé, devra oublier tout ce que ses ancêtres lui ont enseigné pour apprendre à progresser par lui-même.

« Ma vie n’est qu’une illusion, dit la taupe au ver. Tout ce que j’aimerais bien tenir contre moi m’échappe des mains. Tu ne peux pas comprendre parce que tu n’as pas de bras ; mais tu vois, chez nous les taupes, c’est comme si nos bras avaient été placés à l’envers; le gauche à la place du droit et inversement. Dès qu’on veut s’emparer de quoi que ce soit, nos mains l’écartent sur le côté́. En même temps, c’est ce mouvement-là̀ qui nous fait avancer. On avance à la recherche de quelque chose qu’on ne pourra jamais obtenir. »

Interview with Patrick Corillon

An exhibition of Patrick Corillon's work is open 45 minutes before the start of the show.

With Patrick Corillon, Dominique Roodthooft
Text and design Patrick Corillon
Stage direction Patrick Corillon, Dominique Roodthooft
Set design Patrick Corillon
Computer graphics and animation Raoul Lhermitte
Set design collaborators Chloé Arlotti, Rüdiger Flörke, Camille Henrard, Ioannis Katikakis, Valérie Perin, Grégoire Trichon, Emma Werth
Assistant director Nora Dolmans
Coordination Perrine Estienne
Stage manager Julien Legros
Administration Françoise Sougné
English translation for audio Patrick Lennon

Production Le Corridor, DC&J Création
Coproduction Communauté d'agglomération Mont-Saint-Michel-Normandie, Fundamental Monodrama Festival (Luxembourg), Mars - Mons Arts de la scène
With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Wallonie Emploi et Action sociale, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Loterie nationale (Belgium), City of Liège, Province de Liège, Tax Shelter of the federal government of Belgium, Inver Tax ShelterJan Michalski and the Foundation for Writing and Literature, the French Institute - Cross-Channel Theatre of the United Kingdom for the audio translation into English