Spirits Dancing

(photo credit: Verieihnix, thank you)

Celebrations are taking place in Berlin this weekend for the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of Germany. At the centre of the celebrations is a 4-day performance by Royal de Luxe‘s giant street theatre puppets, featuring their little giantess, and her giant uncle, the deep-sea diver.

Earlier this year in June the diver debuted in Nantes in La géante du Titanic et le scaphandrier, but in Berlin the back story, already one of separation and reunion, has been redrawn as an allegory for the divisions of Germany:

Berlin was once a swamp inhabited by giants.  One day, land and sea monsters tore the city in two and the Big Giant and Little Giantess were separated. The Little Giantess fell into a long sleep. When she awakes, she finds a large old mailbag containing letters between East and West Berlin, and sets out to deliver them.  After each searching the streets of the city, the two giants are reunited and symbolically return tens of thousands of letters once intercepted by former East Germany’s Stasi secret police to people watching their procession through the city.

Photos and videos are starting to appear at Flickr and YouTube, and many others will follow, but here are some links to items that have grabbed my attention so far:

• Official site: Risesen-in-Berlin: The Berlin Re-Union
• @dieriesenkommen on Twitter
• Promo with nice footage from Nantes
• Four videos of the Giantess
• Video of diver surfacing and a close up of the puppeteers
• Reuters video: Giants re-enact German Re-unification
• ABC News video: good summary in video, includes reunion between giants
• Die KlieneRiesen: photo by Gofio of the reunion, Brandenburg Gates
• Royal de Luxe Central photo pool at Flickr
• Search ‘Riesen berlin’ at Flickr, or YouTube

I’ve posted a lot about Royal de Luxe and their influence on the genre of giant puppets over the last few years and you can search here to go to those posts.

Tags: berlin, giant, giant puppets, giantess, marionettes, puppetry, puppets, reunification, royal de luxe, street theatre

(photo credit: jazamarripae)

It’s interesting when you can see a show like Royal de Luxe having an influence on the culture. I think something like that might have been at work in this dog puppet that was at Barcelona’s Món del llibre, an annual fair to promote book reading/purchasing, oriented towards children. According to jazamarripae (thanks!) there were a couple of dogs and some camels, and this strange thing, all mounted on wheels and operated by levers and pulleys.

I mentioned a giant Korean boy puppet before, but have found a few more pictures of him in Korean now: photos from anomi1: 1, 2, 3,4. I’d still be interested to find out more about him and who made him. From the same occasion there is also this face which has the same puppet mechanism marks at the side of it’s mouth.

This cool girl puppet (photo by driguiluza) in Chile, where Royal de Luxe toured earlier this year, is another example.

_Kreibel_, who started the Royal de Luxe Central group photo pool at Flickr, has some related stencils, and a tutorial on how to do them. He also has some photos of Kijk mij! a street exhibition of Jordi Bover’s photographs of the audience watching Royal de Luxe.

Tags: boy, dog, elephant, france, giantess, girl, korea, marionettes, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, stencils, street theatre

Today I came across this photo of a giant boy marionette, taken in Sydney’s CBD in late January. It’s very much like Royal de Luxe’s little giantess (who has been visiting Santiago, Chile, in the company of a rhinoceros) but I doubt he is theirs. Does anyone know the film company, or what production they were working on?

Update: A couple of people have uploaded videos of the puppet. Apparently it is to be in a Korean clothing commercial of some sort:

Marionette
Giant Puppet in Syndey

I assume this was a practice session, since the articulation has a way to go, but it’s interesting to see how tricky it is after the seemingly faultless performances by Royal de Luxe. The hips look a bit too wobbly as if they might need to go back to the drawing board, but the untidy looseness in the legs and arms lend a bit of boyishness at times. I wonder what it is made out of? I’d guess plastic not wood. I was really surprised that Royal de Luxe uses wood.

Tags: cile, elephant, giant boy, giantess, korea, marionette, puppetry, puppets, rhinoceros, royal de luxe, santiago, street theatre

I’ve been keeping a list of Royal de Luxe links since I first became aware of them last June. This weekend I believe The Sultan’s Elephant is in Calais, and then in La Havre at the end of October (26 – 29th).

The producers who brought The Sultan’s Elephant to London in June this year are bringing out a book of photos, reminiscences and articles about the event which will be published in November.

Meanwhile, some lovely Royal de Luxe photos at Flickr:

Le Grand Géant in the water at Pont Du Gard in August (by krisyid)
The Giraffes in Le Harve earlier in September (by jeffreyhill)
Machines of Spectacle at Le Grand Repertoire in Paris (by Tekrotzen)
Most recent Royal de Luxe photos

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant

Royal de Luxe’s four-day street spectacle, The Sultan’s Elephant, is in Antwerp, Belgium, this weekend. Here is a link back to my collected of links about them, to which I will be adding the following:

Official Anterp site (via)
Flickr photo pool for the Sultan’s Elephant in Antwerp
Ongoing Royal de Luxe delicious links, as I find them.

Incidentally, here is a gorgeous little movie of edited sequences put to music, from the appearence in London.

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre.belgium, sultan, sultan's elephant

The find of my week was the discovery that Emmanuel Bourgeau, a sculptor in Plogonnec, has a small gallery of photos of the construction and carving of the huge elephant and girl in Royal
de Luxe’s spectacle, The Sultan’s Elephant, which paraded the streets of
London last week. Isn’t the net wonderful? I’ve added this link to my collected Royal de Luxe links.

(Via Royal de Luxe).

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, make, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, sculptor, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant, woodcarving

There is a Flickr pool for photos of the Sultan’s Elephant, the Royal de Luxe street theatre spectacle happening in London right now and over this weekend. The official website gallery is also starting to post photos. The BBC coverage looks as if its going to be good too – I’m hoping to see it on one of the webcams!

I’ll be adding links that I find to my previous collection of links as I get time, but you can also see more immediately what I am finding by checking my del.icio.us/royaldeluxe tag. Or you could subscribe to it’s rss feed.

Upadate: wonderful footage of the elephant, taken by Mike. (via Boing Boing)

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant

Royal de Luxe’s wonderful spectacle, The Sultan’s Elephant, is coming to London from 4th – 7th May, brought to you by Artichoke. It will take place in the streets and public spaces of Westminster, in the
area around Horse Guards Parade in St James’s Park, St James’s,
Piccadilly, Haymarket and Trafalgar Square. There is a new promotional website for London, The Sultan’s Elephant. Thanks to Elfie for letting me know.

Update: I’ve added this to my previous links, and started updating there. Might as well keep it all in one place. I’ll keep tracking links there as the London spectacle develops.

Tags: puppetry, puppets,
Royal de Luxe, elephant, giantess, London, sultan, France, sultan’s elephant, sultanselephant, street theatre

Tags: elephant, france, giantess, London, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, sultan, sultan's elephant

Update: I’ve posted a lot about Royal de Luxe and it’s influence since this post. Click here to go to search links to all those posts.

——————————–

I’m blown away by the French street theatre company Royal de Luxe’s amazing street parade, ‘The Visit of the Sultan of India Atop His Time-Travelling Elephant’, which took place in Nantes last week, in honour of the centenary of Jules Verne’s death. A rocket landed just outside the cathedral in place Saint Pierre, and from it a young giantess emerged. Together with the Sultan’s huge 11 metre tall elephant with a house built into its back, she explored the streets of Nantes, taking time to eat an icecream, ride a scooter, take a shower and nap, be lifted up onto the elephant’s trunk, and eventually to return to take off in her rocket again.

I’ve been collecting links! If you are short on time go to the ones with asterisks. I also have an ongoing Royal de Luxe links list at del.icio.us for links as I find them.

2007:

• The Sultan’s Elephant in Santiago, South America, late January, with a rhinoceros.
• The Sultan’s Elephant in Reykjavik, Iceland 10 – 12 May, with the little giantess’s father. Here is a great close up of his face.
• Les Machines de l’île de Nantes
• Some influences of Royal de Luxe, including a giant boy in Korea, dog puppet in Barcelona, giant girl in Chile, stencil art and photographs

2006:

• Le Grand Géant in the water at Pont Du Gard, August (by krisyid) (added 29 Sept 2006)
• The Giraffes in Le Harve, September (by jeffreyhill) (added 29 Sept 2006)
• Machines of Spectacle at Le Grand Repertoire in Paris (by Tekrotzen) (added 29 Sept 2006)
• Le Grand Repertoire photo pool at Flickr (added 29 Sept 2006)
• The producers who brought The Sultan’s Elephant
  to London in June this year are bringing out a book of photos,
  reminiscences and articles about the event which will be published in
  November 2006. (added 29 Sept 2006)

The Sultan’s Elephant in Antwerp (added 8 July 2006)

• Official Anterp site (via)
• Flickr photo pool for the Sultan’s Elephant in Antwerp

The Sultan’s Elephant in London (added 21 Apr 2006)

• The Sultan’s Elephant
• Artichoke (company bringing TSE to London)
• BBC coverage, including webcams of various locations (added 2 May 2006)
• BBC photo gallery – you can send in your photos (added 2 May 2006)
• Short interview with promoter Helen Marriage in The Guardian
• About the London promotion
• Flickr group photo pool: The Sultan’s Elephant in London (added 5 May 2006)
• Wonderful video footage of the elephant by Mike
• At Boing Boing
• BBC video: the event begins
• BBC TV news video early on. Poor quality.
• Simon Crubellier’s exellent gallery*
• Sean McManus’s photos
• a gorgeous little movie of edited sequences put to music*

2005:

Nantes official site (in French):

• sequence of events
• photographic and video clip gallery *
• technical statistics for the elephant

Other photo galleries:

• Ian Flanigan: fabulous photos, video clips and commentary; technical gallery and commentary (very cool)*
• Nantes: actualite,archetecture, photo
• Agora Forum
• Winona
• Guillaume Gautier
• Assblaster: elephant in transit at night
• Christophe Routhieau(added 19 June 2005)
• EpiTaF (added 19 June 2005)
• La Prise.org: part 1 (added 19 June 2005); part 2 – details of the elephant (23 June); part 3 – this has cool video clips! (9 Nov) (thanks darth!)*
• Raphael
• Emmanuel Bourgeau: carving and construction photos take link from ‘la gazette de l’atelier’ page (link updated July 2007)*

At Flickr:

• Winona
• Guillaume Gautier
• Samuel Besnard
• jujufrodo1 – I love this one

Blog entries:

• dirty beloved: great links about the company; thanks Ajax! I’ve included most but not all of them here
• jzw:1, 2 (include accounts by Ian Flanigan)*

Amiens:

• Eric Pouhier’s photo gallery (including some of the puppeteers/manipulators) added 19 June)
• Renaud’s Gallery (added 23 June 2005) – cool!
• Ch_P at Flickr (added 23 June 2005)
• 2005 Amiens photo gallery

About Royal de Luxe:About Royal de Luxe (French sites):

• VTi: A Short Introduction
• Royal de Luxe – not an official site, but pretty comprehensive – history, links to photos and reviews (thanks for the image above)* (updated link 2 June 2006)
• Royal de Luxe
• French Wikipedia entry
• 1995-2002 – Karen Maldonado
• Interview with Jean-Luc Courcoult, director (in Spanish)
• Interview with Jean-Luc Courcoult, dirctor (pdf in English)
• BBC Royal de Luxe photo gallery, from older productions (added 6 May 2006)

Royal de luxe at Wikipedia (added July 2007)

Machines of Spectacle

• Machines of Spectacle exhibition

‘Hunters of the Giraffes’ photo galleries:

• Le Fourneau*
• Guy Yoyotte-Husson et HC

‘The Giant’

• Photo gallery
• The small black giant (single image, added 19 June)
• single image by Jordi Bover

Catamini Attraction

• Hugues Allart’s gallery

Poster

• Royal de Luxe poster for sale (image on the right)

Tour dates:

2005:

• Nantes (France) – 22, 23, 24, 25 May. Debut.
• Amiens (France) – 16, 17, 18, 19 June
• La Havre – mid July (didn’t happen as far as I know)
• London (UK) – 8, 9, 10, 11 September. (I think this did not happen because of the London bombings)

2006: (only London confirmed as far as I know)

• London (UK) – 5, 6, 7, 8 May. See here for official website coverage.
• Antwerp (Belgium) – 6, 7, 8, 9 July
• Calais (France) – 28, 29, 30 Sept & 1 Oct
• La Havre (France) – 26, 27, 28, 29 Oct
• Paris, Bilbao, Marseilles, Valance possible

Tags: antwerp, barcelona, chile, elephant, france, giant boy, giant dog, giantess, korea, Les Machines de l’île de Nantes, London, making, photographs, poster, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, spectacle, stencil, street theatre, sultan's elephant, video