Les Commandos Percu
International street arts company
Outdoor or indoor – night time
Duration : from 30 to 45 min depending on the project
Audience : up to 1500 people
Drumming show unplugged and with mobile lights, including small pyro effects.
Finale on a square with very little technical requirements and 360° visibility for the audience.
Les Commandos Percu’s 2017 piece “Silence!” explored a very peculiar universe: musicians rising out like miners from the ashes of an ancient world. This show toured widely across Europe and gave birth to “Mineurs” which explores the identity of these men at work, getting out of the mine to bring the machines back to life. This show focuses on closeness and interaction with the audience.
Miners take the streets as if they have just been extracted from the guts of the earth. Streets turn into a gallery where working men move forward in the beam of their lamps. The audience becomes a moving wall. What did they dig up? A warm breeze rises, the breath of a living machine, a powerful heart beat setting their pace. Miners progress, surrounded by slivers of metal and sparkles, they drag, scrape, heat. The beat develops into a whirlwind of drum. Arriving on a city square where they gather all their treasures, Miners blackened arms make the drums speak. What they dug up is a whirlwind of life.
"With their previous show Silence!, Les Commandos Percu explored a new identity : a mineral world of men at work and whispering machines. These men evoked miners with their black faces and head lamps. I was myself born and raised by a family of miners in coal country. Although this imagery is for sure part of my artistic approach, the idea for this new show mainly came from audience feedback and their absolute certainty that these musicians were actually miners. In addition to this statement was this constant question: what would we do if there were nothing left, if there was a massive break down?
What could we scratch, explore, dig up and bring back to light?
A vital heart beat would come out of this imaginary gallery.Les Commandos Percu new creation “Mineurs” chooses to explore this new identity. This show will take advantage of any public space with very little technical requirements.
Musical instruments or random items?
From the chaos of raw material slowly emerges a new world."Raymond Gabriel
Cast :
Mineurs is supported by le Conseil Général de la Haute Garonne, la SPEDIDAM, HH Producties Amsterdam, Association Multimusique, Rythmes et Sons Strasbourg, Pro ORCA drumsticks et la Ville de Toulouse.
