THE NEW SHOW I N T H E C H ÂT E A U C O M TA L

PRESS KIT

LA CITÉ DES PIERRES VIVANTES

AUGUST 1ST TO SEPTEMBER 1ST, 20183 SHOW TIMES EVERY NIGHTS AT 9:30PM, 10:15PM AND 11PM

A C R E A T I O N B Y B R U N O S E I L L I E R

INFORMATION – BOOKING www.citedespierresvivantes.fr

Usual points of sale and at the château comtal

© 4VENTS/CMN

CARCASSONNE

THE CITY OF THE LIVING STONES

THE NEW SUMMER SHOW

BRUNO SEILLIER, THE CREATOR OF THE SHOW

THE ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

MICKAËL LE MER AND THE DANCE COMPAGNY S’POART

MARGAUX BLANCHARD AND MARIE-SUZANNE DE LOYE

AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS

THE OTHER SHOWS OF THE SUMMER

THE CHÂTEAU COMTAL

OUR PARTNERS: THE CENTRE DES MONUMENTS NATIONAUX

THE CITY OF CARCASSONNE

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

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THE NEW SUMMER NIGHT SHOW IN CARCASSONNE!

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The Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN), in partnership with the city of Carcassonne, has chosen to entrust the creation, direction and production of the new night show in the château comtal to Amaclio Productions, well known for its successful shows La Nuit aux Invalides and Les Luminessences d’Avignon, which have already hosted over 700,000 spectators.

A FANTASY AND POETRY WALKING SHOW ON THE TRACKS OF VIOLLET-LE-DUC AND HIS STONE GHOSTS

It emerges, majestic, powerful, in its thousand-year-old adornment, so fascinating.Carcassonne. It wasn’t always like that. But one day a man fell under the charm of this city. In the mineral bowels of the city, he felt a heart beat.

From the picture fairy to the magic of a musical encounter, through dance spell, discover one of the wonders of the Middle Ages and let the city of living stones enchant you.

He has called upon two artists whose talent will enhance the beauty of a unique visual and sound experience: the choreographer Mickael Le Mer and his dance company S’POART and the gambist Margaux Blanchard, who will alternate with Marie-Suzanne de Loye, both artists of the musical ensemble Les Ombres.

This night show harmoniously mixing technologies and live performance is puntuated by three highlights:

• the magic monumental image projected on the front of the Barbacane: the city restauration and the torments of the architect Viollet-le-Duc evoked in a poetic and fantastic way,

• the poetry of the bodies in the honor courtyard: in the vagaries of history, the bodies are talking together and represent the encounter between Carcassonne and people in a choreography by Michael Le Mer interpreted by the company S’POART,

• a musical surprise in the cour du midi: the stone becomes a jewel case to magnify the harmony betwwen two exceptional artists, Margaux Blanchard and Marie-Suzanne de Loye and their instruments.

The walking show ends up with a stroll on the ramparts offering a magic view onto the city of Carcassonne.

The monumental video is in French but headsets are available in English and Spanish!

SHOWING FROM AUGUST 1ST TO SEPTEMBER 1ST

3 show times every nights at 9:30pm, 10:15pm and 11pm

BRUNO SEILLIER,THE CREATOR OF THE SHOW

Right from the start of Amaclio Productions in April 2012, Bruno SEILLIER artistically directed four shows; the first two, La Nuit aux Invalides and Les Luminessences d’Avignon, are monumental video-projection shows, and the third, Les Ecuyers du temps, a combined live and equestrian performance (including 150 actors), and monumental video-projection, staged in Saumur.

As for the fourth, it combines monumental video, video mapping, computer graphics as well as 3 actual staged planes: LA CONQUÊTE DE L’AIR, a 360° grandiose show recounts 100 years of French aviation and has been conceived by the creator at the heart of the Grand Palais in April 2016.

Bruno SEILLIER is the author of 48 shows, from theatre to the most ambitious scenographies. Versailles, Palais des Papes d’Avignon, the Grand Palais, Notre-Dame de Paris...he magnified the greatest sites. Vendée Globe, La Conquête de l’air, he staged the greatest human adventures.

His latest creation Notre Dame de Cœur, on the façade of Notre-Dame de Paris, which paid tribute to the American commitment to France in 1917, dazzled 70,000 spectators in Paris in November 2017.

Its particularity is to create shows around the valorisation of a place: how to magnify it without making disappear its first essence, how to harmonize technology and the historical monument? The shows he has designed respond to these challenges and seek to serve the beauty of buildings without making them unrecognizable: “I don’t seek to crush the monument under artifcial feeting virtualisation. On the contrary, I want to use the power of technology to bring the monument alive, to change its garment and establish a dialogue with it.”

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Artistic director, scriptwriter and director, Bruno Seillier governs all the details that make up his show: he imagines the visual effects, he thinks about their execution, he writes the script, he chooses the music... His work is truly that of an artist at the service of a site: “The place? It’s the casing, the recipient in which the idea takes shape with constraint and sublimation.”

For Bruno Seillier, it is more about reconnecting with the roots of European civilisation than creating a momentary emotion or feeting pleasure; he has always striven to arouse in the heart of the spectator an admiration and wonder in spectators hearts, and create a prelude for inner dialogue.

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MICKAËL LE MER CHOREOGRAPHER

Born in 1977, Mickaël Le Mer discovered Hip Hop in the early 90s. He was first trained at the company S’Poart in 1996. It is in this collective context that Mickaël Le Mer makes his first attempt as a choreographer and it is with In Vivo in 2007 that he inaugurates and assumes a demanding writing that draws on the dancers’ personal experience. The result is marked by both a poetic and urban sensibility, while developing a great mastery of the stage space, and by all the components of the show (lighting, scenography, music...).

His work was notably rewarded in 2009 by the second prize of the jury at the dance competition [Re]Connaissance which is jointly organised by the Maison de la Danse de Lyon and the CDC de Grenoble.

Mickaël, artistic director and choreographer of the Company, has created a play as part of the France-Russia Year in 2010: the play Na Grani, a creation for 10 Russian and French dancers, from Hip Hop and contemporary dance, performed for the first time at the Lyon Dance Biennale in 2010. In 2012 comes Instable, Rock It Daddy in 2013, Rouge in 2014 and the trio Traces in 2015.

Mickaël Le Mer’s choreographic writing is based on hip hop dance vocabulary with the freedom to integrate it into an abstract approach. His writing is marked by a poetic sensitivity, all in restraint, with moments of fulgurances proper to the urgency of this dance. His great mastery of space draws a graphic dance that multiplies the trajectories and opens the space of possibilities. This issue of openness is at the heart of Mickaël Le Mer’s work: taking the risk of going towards the other, establishing contact.

His dance dares sensuality. The supports on the ground are relayed by the supports of the bodies between them: exchanges of energy, lifts, jumps, flights. The performance and virtuosity of the dancers transcend the limits to imagine other spaces, leaving the audience alert to surprise them. His plays express a great humanity and reveal his mathematical spirit. They draw spaces in constant mutation, explore movement, play with lines and rhythm. The sensitivity of the interpreters reveals their dancing skills, their interpersonal skills and their way of living. With sincerity and generosity, Mickaël Le Mer gives himself the freedom to transform hip-hop dance.

ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

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S’POART THE DANCE COMPANY

The hope to make dance a space of expression and creation based on performance, exchange, discovery and meeting the other.

A HUMAN ADVENTURE The company’s history is above all a human and collective adventure that began in 1996. After numerous artistic collaborations with the companies Käfig and Accrorap, it became professional in 2001 with its show Extra Luna, which was performed more than eighty times in France and abroad.

Based on this success, S’Poart’s work evolves from creation to creation, alternating between creations and shows: Etre Ange (2005), Vibrations (2005), Toi et Moi et Moi et Toi (2007), In Vivo (2007), Na Grani (2010), Instable (2012), Rock it Daddy (2013), Una (2013), Rouge (2014) and Traces (2015).

The company’s work evolves with the times and is enriched by everyone’s collaborations with circus, theatre, music and, of course, dance artists.

Year after year, the company achieves national and international recognition. The company’s shows are currently broadcast throughout France but also abroad: Brazil, India, Russia, Chad, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, Switzerland, Morocco, Guyana, Reunion, Spain, China, ...

The company’s plays are supported by the DRAC Pays de La Loire, the Pays de la Loire Region, the Vendée County Council and the City of La Roche-sur-Yon.

In a concern of sharing and meeting, the company S’Poart continues in parallel of its work of creation and diffusion, to deliver courses intended for all the public: young people, adults, training courses abroad, in prison environment, in the I.M.E ...

Very attached to supporting amateur practice, the company regularly organizes programming evenings for regional companies (Urban Act) and organizes every two years the festival «Colors» with a street parade which in 2016 brought together more than 1000 amateur dancers and 20,000 spectators. She also supports and supervises several amateur companies in Yonne: Inhopse, Cyclone, OXC, ...

ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

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MARGAUX BLANCHARD AND MARIE-SUZANNE DE LOYE THE GAMBISTS

Margaux Blanchard and Marie-Suzanne de Loye alternate as artists of the group Les Ombres.

Les Ombres benefits from the support of the Orange Foundation, the DRAC and the Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region. Les Ombres are «artist in residence» at the Singer-Polignac Foundation and are members of FEVIS and PROFEDIM.

MARGAUX BLANCHARD

The violist Margaux Blanchard performs as soloist and chamber musician under the direction of Jordi Savall, Vincent Dumestre, François-Xavier Roth, etc. Invited by numerous festivals (Ambronay, Aix-en-Provence, La Folle Journée...), she also frequents the stages of prestigious opera houses in France and abroad (Opéra Garnier, Opéra Comique, Opéra royal de Versailles, Amsterdam, Geneva, Tokyo, New York...). She is the regular guest of the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln to perform J.S.Bach Johannes Passion as soloist. In 2009, she met the Argentinean conductor and harpsichordist Leonardo García Alarcón, with whom she performed as a duo and as part of the Cappella Mediterranea continuo.

Margaux Blanchard developed her artistic personality from a very early age. His family, turned towards performing arts, introduced

her to dance and theatre. From the age of eight, and at the same time learning to play the piano, she sang at the Paris Conservatoire in various opera productions: classical, jazz and contemporary. As a teenager, she discovered the viola da gamba. This instrument of mysterious beauty will never leave her, as well as the joy of performing on stage. Distinguished by several mentions, and among the youngest graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, she begins during her higher studies an international career and travels, with a singular curiosity, a wide repertory, from medieval to contemporary. With a complete background in singing, piano, harpsichord and dance, she became a versatile and accomplished artist who chose to make the public her favourite partner.

She set up in Occitanie her ensemble Les Ombres, a chamber orchestra co-founded in 2008 with the flautist and choir director Sylvain Sartre from Perpignan. Together, they compose unexpected shows making their group a collective apart mixing contemporary dance and theatre with baroque music. By inscribing their playing in their time, they transmit their passion to all audiences. Their productions with a unique atmosphere, enriched with plays of scenes and light variations, allow the poetry of the music to be projected into space. The critically acclaimed recordings of Margaux (ffff Telerama, Choc Classica, etc...) can be found at Mirare, Glossa, Alpha, Ricercar, and Ambronay Editions.

ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

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MARIE-SUZANNE DE LOYE

After organ studies at the C.R.R. Marie-Suzanne turned her attention to baroque music. She learned harpsichord with Blandine Verlet and viola da gamba with Nima Ben David. She obtained a Diploma of Musical Studies of viola da gamba at the C.R.R. from Boulogne Billancourt and a degree in musicology from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. Eager to widen her fields of expression and understanding, she approaches free improvisation (notably with Joëlle Léandre), Ottoman music (with Evguenios Voulgaris and Sokratis Sinopoulos) or baroque dance (with Béatrice Massin).

She belongs to different groups of ancient music (orchestra, consort, chamber music) with whom she performs numerous concerts and recordings: Concert des Planètes «Vous qui la terre

habitez» (label Psalmus); L’Achéron «Ludi Musici de Samuel Scheidt» (label Ricercar) - diapason d’or; «Cipriano de Rore Ancor che col partire» (label Ricercar); L’Achéron et Vox Luminis «Johann Caspar Kerll Requiems» (label Ricercar) ; «Marguerite Louise» «Motets pour une princesse»(label L’Encelade); Le Concert Étranger «Conversation avec Dieu» (label Ambronay).

In parallel, she explores other aesthetics: the contemporary chamber opera «Vanda» for voice, viola da gamba and electronic tape composed by Lionel Ginoux (on a libretto by Jean- Pierre Siméon) in which she is soloist alongside the mezzo-soprano Ambroisine Bré. In the trio Animal K, which brings together singer and performer Violaine Lochu and electric guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay, she explores and reinterprets the Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish repertoire.

She also collaborates with singers-composers-interpreters: Elie Guillou «Chanteur public» (Hé ouais mec production label) and Valentin Vander «L’audace ou la timidité» (Hé ouais mec pro-duction label) as well as with theatre companies (Compagnie la Subversive, les Mouvements de l’Âme).

AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS

Even in its name, AMACLIO states its mission, which is to inspire people to love history and make others love it too. Its aim is to exalt French and European heritage through multi-technology shows for the widest possible audience.Amaclio is specialised in producing performances to showcase heritage sites. The company was set up by François Nicolas, history and litterature enthusiast, and Bruno Seillier, stage director and creator of more than 40 shows. Since 2012, 3 shows were given in ONU Heritage sites:

La Nuit aux Invalides, monumental video show in the Honor Courtyard of Les Invalides. More than 300,000 spectators came to see this show.

Les Luminessences d’Avignon, a monumental, 360° video-projection in the Courtyard of the Popes’ Palace in Avignon. More than 350,000 spectators have seen this monumental show staged every summer from 2013 to 2017, with an English version proposed starting in 2015.

Les Écuyers du Temps au château de Saumur, produced by the town hall of Saumur... Performing arts, equestrian and monumental light show, with the Cadre Noir: more than 30,000 spectators.

Bruno’s last creation, LA CONQUÊTE DE L’AIR, Dassault saga, a French Adventure, was presented in April 2016 at the Grand Palais in Paris. 25,000 spectators enjoyed that 360° show, in the great nave of the monument: state of the art technologies, image archives, flying sequences, special effects, and a resounding soundtrack to tell us the tale of 100 years marked with air feats, with 3 legendary planes staged like true actors.

Since its creation in April 2012, Amaclio Productions has already attracted more than 700,000 spectators to admire its productions.

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THE OTHER SHOWS OF THE SUMMER

AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS creates and produces two other shows this summer:

LA NUIT AUX INVALIDES: 1918, THE RISE OF A NEW WORLD

Monumental show in the Cour d’honneur des Invalides from June 27th to September 1st, Wednesday to Saturday.

Follow Martin, a provincial child exiled in Paris, immersed in one of the founding episodes of the modern era and discover with him the different faces of the Great War. In the courtyard of the Invalides, which stand for the melting pot of French history, time and distance are abolished, in a whirlwind of images, memories and emotions. Power and emotion are at the heart of this summer’s great show in Paris in this centenary year 14-18!

Information and reservations on www.lanuitauxinvalides.fr

LES CHRONIQUES DU MONT… AT THE BEGINNING

Night show at Château Comtal of Carcassonne in partnership with the Centre des monuments nationaux from August 1st to September 1st

«At the beginning», first volume of the Chronicles of the Mont, invites you to discover the mysteries of the abbey and the mount magnified by the newest technologies all along an original journey.Let yourself be carried away by the cosmic forces at work to sculpt the Mount at the peril of the sea; let yourself be guided by the moving light of the soul in the fogs of the bay.Find refuge in the sanctuary in the midst of the raging elements and discover the stone, lit as in the distant times when the sun and the flame were the only lights of the Mount...

Information and reservations on www.leschroniquesdumont.fr and www.abbaye-mont-saint-michel.fr

Undoubtedly, throughout the summer, AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS imposes itself as a cultural actor of foreground, making it possible always better to reappropriate the heritage of emblematic and

famous places of France, for the happiness of the tourists from all over the world!

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THE CHÂTEAU COMTAL

THE LARGEST FORTIFIED ENCLOSURE IN EUROPE CLASSIFIED AS A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE SINCE 1997

Occupied as early as in the sixth century BC, Carcassonne was a Roman city, fortified in the fourth century and then turned into a typical medieval city as we know it today. In the thirteenth century, the royal power endows the city with a second line of ramparts, enlarges the castle and surrounds it with an enclosure. Restored by Viollet-le-Duc in the nineteenth century, the city testifies to 1000 years of architecture and 2500 years of history. The public travels back in time by walking the pathways, the hoardings and the ramparts of this largest fortified enclosure in France, preserved, opened and animated by the Centre des monuments nationaux.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Opening hours of the castle during the day: 10am to 6:30pm, last entrance 45 minutes before the monument closes.

Full price: 9€Reduced price (18-25 years old outside the European Union): 7€Free for under-26s who are nationals of one of the 28 European Union countries and regular non-European residents on French territory and for holders of an education pass from the French Ministry of Education.

www.remparts-carcassonne.fr Press contact: Catherine Jeanjean+ 33(0)4 68 11 12 21 / + 33(0)6 10 07 01 45 / catherine.jeanjean@monuments-nationaux.fr

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OUR PARTNERSTHE CENTRE DES MONUMENTS NATIONAUX

© Benjamin Gavaudo – CMN

Philippe Bélaval President of the Centre des monuments nationaux

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Contact – Centre des monuments nationaux : Camille Boneu(Château comtal of Carcassonne and abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel) + 33 (0)1 44 61 21 86 / presse@monuments-nationaux.fr

«In sites as exceptional as the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and the city of Carcassonne, night shows remain an essential element of the visitor experience. The Centre des monuments nationaux, which first experimented with «Sounds and Lights» more than sixty years ago, carefully monitors their quality and regular renewal. Immersed in a unique visual and sound experience, spectators of all ages share emotions that renew their approach to the monument.

Using the services of Amaclio Productions for these new shows (and that of Carcassonne is a first, set up in partnership with the municipality), the Centre has sought to combine an authentically popular and family dimension, without renouncing aesthetic quality and historical accuracy. I wish these new shows a lot of success.»

THE CMN IN BRIEF

Glanum and Carnac archaeological sites, Montmajour and Mont-Saint-Michel abbeys, If and Azay-le-Rideau castles, Saint-Cloud national estate, Arc de Triomphe and Savoye and Cavrois villas are some of the 100 national monuments owned by the State and entrusted to the Centre des monuments nationaux.

The leading public, cultural and tourist operator with nearly 9.5 million visitors per year, the Centre des monuments nationaux preserves and opens exceptional monuments as well as their parks and gardens to visitors. They illustrate, by their diversity, the richness of French heritage.

Based on an adapted pricing policy, the CMN facilitates the discovery of the monumental heritage for all publics. More than 85% of its operations are based on its own resources, notably from entrance tickets, bookshops, rental of space and sponsorship. Based on an equalization system, the Centre des monuments nationaux is an actor of heritage solidarity. Beneficial monuments make it possible to carry out cultural and scientific actions throughout the network, recently joined by sites entrusted by other operators : the Villa Kérylos (property of the Institut de France), the chapel of Berzé-la-ville (Academy of Mâcon), Ochier museum (City of Cluny), Cap-moderne (Conservatoire du Littoral). On top of that, the CMN is currently working with the city of Saint-Ouen on the elaboration of a scientific project for the future of its castle. It is restoring and preparing the opening of the Hôtel de la Marine for 2020 and the Château de Villers-Cotterêts by 2022.

Last but not least, the CMN wants to assert itself as a leader in the digitalization of the heritage sites. By creating its heritage incubator in 2018, it has reaffirmed its desire to be as close as possible to innovation.

THE CITY OF CARCASSONNE

The city of Carcassonne has always promoted the programming of a show in the month of August in the heart of the city in order to extend the cultural action and the strength of the festival of Carcassonne, so as to offer tourists and inhabitants of Carcassonne a quality show offer. This year, in partnership with the Centre des monuments nationaux, for a walking show that will reveal the Château Comtal and the story of Carcassonne, we have chosen to ask a production society which has a long experience in creating cultural events in prestigious patrimonial sites such as the Palais des Papes in Avignon or the Cour des Invalides in Paris.

I am convinced that the show «La Cité des pierres vivantes» will live up to the expectations and to the monument that it invests. This is what the City wishes : to propose a show in which families, tourists, territory’s inhabitants and the most diverse publics will be moved by the poetry of the spectacular and the identity of a city, a region and its culture.

Our time sometimes needs marvel in order to understand where we come from and to build our future. If this show takes its part in this will of living together and sharing a time of conviviality and entertainment, we will have achieved culture and conviviality.

Gérard LARRAT, Mayor of Carcassonne

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PRACTICAL INFORMATION

FROM AUGUST 1ST TO SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2018 Every nights

TIMESThree show times at 9:30pm, 10:15pm and 11pm

ENTRYChâteau comtal - 1 rue Viollet-le-Duc - 11000 Carcassonne

TARIFS

PRESALE ON SITE Buy online, at the château comtal from Purchase at the box office 10am to 6pm or at the chalet at the entrance near the castle entrance after 7pm of the château comtal from 10am to 7pm

Full rate 14€ 16€Reduced rate 11€ 13€

FREEFor children under 7 years old

LARGE FAMILIES For 2 adults and 3 children - free from the 4th child : 55€ (presale only) (price reserved for holders of the Large Family Card)

GROUPSFrom 6 people or more: 12€ (presale only on www.citedespierresvivantes.fr)

COMBINED TICKET DAY / NIGHT: 21€

CONDITIONS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE REDUCED TARIF - children and young people between 7 and 25 years old - persons with at least 80% disability (upon presentation of the card) - unemployed persons or beneficiaries of the RSA (on presentation of proof)

Option: rental of audioguides in English or in Spanish 5€

www.citedespierresvivantes.fr / www.remparts-carcassonne.fr

PRESS CONTACTS

Amaclio Productions Diane Soulié + 33 (0)1 44 94 07 46 + 33 (0)6 44 19 13 08media@amaclio.com

Castle and ramparts of Carcassonne Catherine Jeanjean + 33 (0)4 68 11 12 21+ 33 (0)6 10 07 01 45 catherine.jeanjean@monuments-nationaux.fr

Centre des monuments nationaux Camille Boneu + 33 (0)1 44 61 21 86 presse@monuments-nationaux.fr

AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS - RCS Paris 829 087 121 - licences spectacles 2-1101817 / 3-1101818 - réalisation AMACLIO PRODUCTIONS et C&COPhotographies © Luc Arden, 4vents /CMN