An ideal that does not take reality into account. It is with this desire that Pierre-Alain Etchegaray and Aurélien Deloup have decided to launch Utopia, a new festival at the Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille, on September 24 and 25. Except that they unfortunately had to deal with the sad reality of last year and the Covid-19 pandemic. “We were supposed to launch it last fall but the Covid fell on us and with the lack of visibility for the cultural sector, we preferred to postpone it. With the health situation which is improving and the desire to relaunch the culture, we said to ourselves “Here we go, we are going anyway” “, confided the two friends.
And despite this complicated context, Pierre-Alain and Aurélien wanted to pursue this ideal “with a particular meaning, not just to add a festival”. Utopia will therefore be the extension of their year-round work in Cabaret Aléatoire, an electronic music room located at the Friche la Belle de Mai. “There is a link with our daily work, evenings, artist residency with creations, the link with the local, national and international scene. This event will be a bit of a showcase for presenting the multitude of Cabaret Aléatoire projects during a highlight, ”warns Aurélien.
The culmination of ten projects
With an innovation in artistic direction through the 50 artists present for this first edition of Utopia and the desire to offer “a moment of experimentation with artistic projects that have hardly been played or that have not been performed. not found in most festivals, in order to introduce the public to something else. In short, get off the beaten track, ”Pierre-Alain framework. Including a dozen artists who have developed projects during artist residencies, sometimes from A to Z, in recent months within the Cabaret Aléatoire when all cultural venues were closed.
The question of values is also central for Utopia, with the continuation of work on a “charter of values” initiated at Cabaret Aléatoire, parity with a program with 45% of female artists, the inclusion of LGBT + people through the invitation of the Parisian collective Possession, and the establishment of Safer “a system for the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and harassment” developed through an application.
A reduced gauge in a unique location
This “moment of experimentation” will also be carried by the place since the wasteland of the Belle de Mai will be dedicated in its entirety, or almost, to the festival. “There will be seven stages, with a plan and timetables, but many more spaces both indoors and outdoors. There will be the roof terrace, the Cabaret Aléatoire, the cardboard factory, the small and large plateau among others. We understood the site in its global version so that everyone can create their own journey. We want to privilege the personal experience and that the feedback is not just on this or that artist, we want this festival to be lived as a real experience beyond the performance ”, presents Aurélien. The gauge is deliberately limited to 5,000 people to stand out from other festivals during which spectators are often on top of each other.
Pierre-Alain Etchegaray and Aurélien Deloup are already making this first edition a projection towards the next ones since they hope to install Utopia in the unmissable events of Marseille. And if you want to embark on the creation of this ideal, Utopia is looking for volunteers.