Our prime inspiration is Georges Méliès, the inventor of the first special effects for cinema. He dedicated his life to creating a poetic and fantastic world, and took all the tasks upon himself: actor, director, illustrator, decorator, magician and mechanic.
And for our part, what will we do?
Make way for beauty, bring poetry to places where it is not unexpected. Poetry belongs to everyone. There is the poetry of poets that we presented during the 10 years of the Festival Voix d’Amériques and which we will continue to showcase. There is also the poetry of places, of the moving body, images, projections, exterior installations, of music or silence.
To provide a stage for different voices. With our always crucial Combat contre la langue de bois that is now in its 8th edition. But also in our artistic choices, in our desire to present marginal and atypical artists and to give established ones the opportunity to take risks.
To use new technologies to fashion the poetic in a fresh and candid manner, because in any case our mini budgets give us little choice but to be creative. We seek to use digital tools in a crafts-oriented and imaginative way, creating a result that is mysterious and exuberant, yet still poetic and touching.
Foster the improbable encounter between avant-garde and unruly artists and an uninitiated public. Phénomena is for everyone. We welcome emerging and independent artists who have chosen to work off the beaten track. We love inventers, tinkerers, craftspersons, the hands-on people: the puppeteers, transvestites, actor-authors, dancer-performers, outsiders and contributors. Make room for the fantastic.