Apology of difference, explosion of extravagance, celebration of the other and the fully assumed self, the Phénomena Festival is experiencing undeniable growth. For his 12the edition, new rooms – including Usine C and the International House of Puppet Arts – are added to the already established network, where Sala Rossa, located on Boulevard Saint-Laurent, still reigns supreme.
An international component is also added to the program with the arrival of three shows: The donkey’s mass, by Frenchman of Congolese origin Olivier de Sagazan, LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor), by Belgians Hervé Guerrisi and Grégory Carnoli, as well as the electronic music concert YesNoWavebringing together three artists from the Indonesian label of the same name.
Some events are already sold out, including the second edition of the Feminist cabaret not nice at all, in which around ten women from very diverse backgrounds will take part, such as Safia Nolin, Élise Turcotte and Françoise David. Five days after tickets went on sale, they were all snapped up. D. Kimm, artistic and general director of the festival, who had a good feeling that her list of guests would attract crowds, did not, however, consider staging these speeches in a setting larger than that offered by the Sala Rossa. She wants to prioritize proximity, the “connivance” between artists and public.
This privileged stage-room relationship is at the heart of Phénomena’s philosophy. This is why several shows take the form of cabaret, “because the audience reacts,” explains D. Kimm. But Phénomena’s audience is welcoming: they are ready to laugh in one number and be moved in the next. It’s authenticity that interests him.”
Even more traditional productions rely on a certain complicity with the spectators, to whom we address directly, without a fourth wall. This is the case of the piece Julia’s flesh, by Julie Vincent. D. Kimm says she was deeply “touched” by this solo where Vincent, on stage, “is an open book. She talks about her journey, but her story is also the history of Quebec” in addition to being that of a creator “who builds herself, who wants to be an artist, who makes her way in her own way, with her contradictions”.
The one who also runs the company that produces Phénomena, Les Filles Électriques, also fell in love with LUCA, seen at the Off Avignon festival. In this humorous allegory on racism, two Belgian artists born to Italian minors “search for their origins, go to Italy, don’t really understand there and decide to do a genetic test. I don’t want to sell it punch, but it’s very funny, very brilliant and very political too.”
The price of the unknown
The 2023 program of this festival, which appears to be “interdisciplinary and undisciplined”, of course includes approaches that deviate from the usual paths. This is the case of Cabaret of extinct hatred, which is part of “the queer and non-gendered movement” of political burlesque. “We are far from the courses that women take to make a show to their boyfriend or husband,” notes D. Kimm, who sees in this type of representation not only a deconstruction of the traditional image of burlesque, but a space for questioning identity.
Let us specify that the director considers her role as that of a facilitator and her festival as a transmission belt allowing spectators to be introduced to forms of marginal artistic manifestations to which they would not necessarily have access. She cites as an example the show of popping (a type of street dance) Steppin Into the Void : “These are people who have 10-15 years of experience. They are known in their community without being known outside it.
Same scenario on the side of Music Sensationby Axelle Munezero, a fight of waackinganother variation of street dance: “This show-this is a gift that I want to give to the public. We presented a first version last year. It was mind-blowing, I fell out of my chair. It was diversity, it was young people, but the judge [Bill Goodson], who returns this year, was the choreographer of Diana Ross and that of the Moulin Rouge for 30 years. Phénomena is the ideal place to see what you otherwise wouldn’t see. You wouldn’t see battle of waacking because you don’t know when it is, where it is… you might not even know it exists. »
Although the festival is on the rise, its guiding spirit still deplores a certain lack of curiosity on the part of the public. “I hear a lot that we must promote inclusion and diversity, but when we present emerging artists of said diversity, it’s difficult to sell our tickets. » She does not hesitate to highlight these productions on social networks, emphasizing the low entry cost requested. Indeed, inclusion, the cardinal value on which the Phénomena Festival is built, also involves maintaining affordable prices. So that a wide spectrum of spectators has access to a diverse cultural offering.