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NICE CARNIVAL / CARNIVAL OF NICE
Nice France : the city of French Carnival
 Contemporary art and carnival
The grotesque art inspired and tempted with more or less of originality, the artists painters and contemporary sculptors.
Chagall, Picasso, Matisse, handled the subject of the Carnival, under the shape of posters or lithographies, followed by Moretti, Arman, Caesar, Tobiasse, Martine Doytier.
In 1993, two artists of the School of Nice, Louis Cane and Ben, involve in the grotesque parade and sign each the conception of a float.
The meeting of Madam Europe and Ratapignata, will be no doubt an adventure rich and full of hope.
Louis Cane and the float of Europe
In 1993, Carnival will be Roy of Europe. The numerous Court and its merry subjects will evoke the various European countries. An elegant and spectacular way of celebrating the vocation of Nice, European metropolis.
The Events committee worried about innovation sponsored a ceremony specially conceived for that purpose: Masquerade, the scenography of which was entrusted to Michel Crespin La Mascarade " unique and multiple Europe " participates in the grotesque parade. It associates the big float articulated by Madam Carnival, Europe 93, conceived by Louis Cane. This big float is surrounded with twelve retorts of the same subject representing every country of the E.E. C.
120 young inhabitants of Nice will constitute the dynamic element of this Masquerade on a choreography of Artefact and an electronic original music, conceived by Martin Chevalier and Henri Manini and costumes by M.L. Poulain and l. L. Ardouin. |
BEN and The Ratapignata
Ben drew his inspiration from the history of the Carnival of Nice and chose the fascinating subject of Ratapignata, fundamental in the Carnival of Nice.
Ben considers it as a symbol of " the defence of the culture of Nice " to which he wishes to add a modernity and a contemporaneousness (sic). For that purpose, the bottom - relief of the float consists of texts in language of Nice.
He chose to present a gigantic and nice Ratapignata, with a small naughty smile, and which spreads its big wings on the float on an original musical animation of Louis Pastorelli and the airsof rap of Nice (sic).
Big paper rolls will roll towards the public and will be transformed into balls of paper which " will allow battles of balls ".
The public will be particularly spoiled and privileged to be able to communicate with various conceptions of the festival. |
What future, for Nice, European Carnival?
The Art of the Grotesque Holiday, is profoundly bound to the history and the evolution of the urban Festival.
The current grotesque processions took shape at the end of the XIX-th century. It is interesting to underline the appearance, the same year or almost of big parades of grotesque floats, in pasteboard: it was in 1873, in Nice, Viareggio, Rio, New Orleans, that count even nowadays among the most important urban carnivals of the world.
Nowadays, the aesthetics of the grotesque festival, evolves, widens, is illuminated, is questioned. New orientations appear which correspond to other forms of conviviality, communication.
One of the most characteristic phenomena to be indicated, in this decade when the world celebrates Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World, is exactly, the current influence as a boomerang effect, Brazilian carnivals, West Indian, Latin American on European Carnivals and Scandinavians, quite particularly.
Effectively, for more than a decade the " schools of samba " bloom in Scandinavia and "tropical" carnivals take place during feasts of the spring or summer in Denmark (Aalborg, Copenhagen) or Sweden (Stockholm, Norkopping).
The orchestras of steel-band and magnificent suits of Trinidad's carnival expose themselves splendidly during Notting Hill's carnival which takes place in London at the end of August, in the presence of a million persons.
The Holiday, the Carnival, such Ph œ nix which is reborn of its ashes engenders new symbols: the influence of the African, Indian, afro-Brazilian, Afro West Indian cultures, transformed the tropical carnivals, - of European import, originally.
The Holiday, the Carnival, the Music, become soaked with this admixture, this interbreeding of the cultures which has for privileged radius of action, the street, the creation of new cultural and social connections, new spaces, new forms of expression. Samba, soca, salsa and maintaining the rap replace walking and farandoles of former days.
The Arts of the street take place in the festival, and played an important role in the ceremonies which took place during the Olympic Games of Albertville and Barcelona. They inspire several carnivals in France, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany..
The carnavalier becomes an artist - plastics technician, a scenographer. Nice, which had already been the "experimental" Carnival of the end of the last century, will know, in this year of 1993, to begin its new evolution and to make a success of the inevitable meeting between Carnival and Arts of the Street? Carnival and contemporary Art?
The answer should not escape carnavaliers, holders of a popular, too much underestimated and underestimated cultural patrimony, and who should take up the challenge of the year 2000. The answer should also call more to the youth ready to get involved again, in the festival with its rhythms, its images, its new values. |
LONG LIFE TO CARNIVAL.
Annie Sidro
Historian and carnavalière, Annie Sidro is strongly marked by her membership in the most ancient) family of Carnavaliers of Nice.
Specialist uncontested of the Carnivals of the whole world and the grotesque Art, she is the author of several university works on this subject.
Cultural counsellor of the City of Nice sh) is also international adviser of International Festivals Association and the European Association of Carnivals.
USEFUL ADDRESSES
- Comité des Fêtes de la Ville de Nice
5, Promenade des Anglais - 06000 Nice
Tél : 04.93.87.16.28.
Fax : 04.93.87.56.10.
- Maison du Carnaval (visite des ateliers des Carnavaliers)
5, Rue Richelmi - 06300 Nice
Tél : 04.93.87.16.28 / 04.93.54.14.11.
- Art, Décoration, Festivités
13, Route de l'Est - 06300 l'Ariane Nice
Tél : 04.93.54.64.74.
- Guillot électricité (Décor lumineux de carnaval)
3, Rue Poincaré - 06000 Nice
Tél : 04.93.86.61.42.
- Carnavals sans Frontières
13, Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville - 81000 Albi
Tél : 03.63.54.26.19
- Association Européenne de Festival – IFA Europe
P.O Box 1240 - 3000 BE Rotterdam - Pays-Bas
Tél : (31)10.417.24.39.
- International Festivals Association
P.O. Box 2950 - Port Angeles, WA 98 362
Tél : (1) 206.452.46.95
Fax : (1) 206.457.31.41.
- Centre National des Arts de la Rue – Lieux Publics
16, Rue Condorcet 13016 Marseille
Tél.: 04.91.03.81.28.
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