Jean-Luc Mélenchon is holding a meeting in Nantes on Sunday January 16, which he promises “immersive and olfactory”. The installation will have taken four days, to allow the 3,000 registered at the Nantes meeting to enjoy a full immersive experience. Installed in the middle of a huge cube at the Parc des Expositions in Nantes, supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be surrounded by 360° screens, each with projected images to navigate through different universes.
The meeting is intended to be a cross between sensory experience and political stroll, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the role of the narrator. “There will be a particular sound, which will come from everywhere”promises the candidate’s team. “All the senses will be on alert”, also explains the campaign manager, since “perfumes will be diffused” to solicit the sense of smell. With a disability: everyone will be masked, with FFP2, high filtration masks, distributed at the entrance.
Far from being a gimmick, this meeting is intended, if everything works, as a model of “form at the service of substance” since the candidate’s speech will revolve around innovation: the new challenges of space, the sea, the digital revolution… In terms of form, the ambition is to “cause attention“, to use the words of a relative, in this decisive month of January, often synonymous with a turning point in the campaign.
After the 2017 holograms, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s team is very proud to break the codes once again, with this first: the use of immersion in politics, a technique more often seen in the world of culture. and show.
Will there be other meetings on the same format? “Not necessarily because it’s a lot of preparation time, and it is quite restrictive for the teams”, explains a member of the first circle.
This Nantes meeting is four days of installation between Thursday and Sunday. And before that, a month of work to make the sets. Basically, it is also a less flexible format for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, used to lyrical flights and improvisations in his speeches. There everything will be calibrated, timed.