Nantes (AFP)

A knot in a lamppost or a tree emerging from an apartment: for the past two years, poetic installations have appeared in the Bellevue district in Nantes where the Royal de Luxe theater company has established itself over the long term to bring about a change of outlook in this territory.

"It's not by putting on a big show in the Bellevue district that it's useful, it will occupy a Saturday / Sunday and then finally for the people who live there (...) it's over , we no longer take care of them ", explains Jean-Luc Courcoult, the founder of Royal de Luxe.

On the other hand, "following the evolution of a neighborhood and its transformation over time" and "getting people used to it, with things every three / four months for four / five years" will allow the works to "settle down. with the memory of people ", continues the sixty-year-old who became famous with his giant puppets presented around the world.

Lila, 39, remembers a "Monsieur Bourgogne" her daughter told her about after school.

This character is the common thread of the project and regularly makes appearances in the neighborhood.

"Can it be him? In any case, it's very nice with the tree inside, I think I will come back this weekend to see the show", says this resident cross then that she discovered by chance "Cinemascope" when she got home from work.

In an apartment ripped open from a building bar that will soon be demolished, a tree with its roots and leaves has been installed and a family mimics daily life.

"Cinémascope" is the latest work to date presented by Royal de Luxe as part of the project.

Each time, the surprise is there: at dawn, the inhabitants discover an installation set up during the night, sometimes with actors inside who play a scene for a few days.

- "change of look" -

"The little ones cling to details, the extraordinary side that we see there, they do not necessarily stuck them", analyzes Yann Courtil, teacher, who took his kindergarten students to see "Cinemascope".

Some retained a scene of an argument between the actors and did not notice the tree, another liked the toast jumping out of the toaster and caught up with the net.

So many funny and tender images "sown in the minds of children" which make the success of the project according to Mr. Courtil, requested by Royal de Luxe to broadcast recordings of Mr. Burgundy in class and bring a Fiat 500 into the playgrounds. transformed into a blackboard.

"This project is not an operation and we are leaving, it is a long-term project", insists the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland.

Nantes, Saint-Herblain and Nantes Métropole invest nearly 600,000 euros per year in this creation.

"Royal de Luxe is a company of international influence".

Its presence in this district will attract inhabitants from the outside who do not necessarily know it and their coming allows "to bring a change of outlook on our working-class districts", she observes.

The first work, which has become perennial, is a twisted lamppost in the shape of a knot.

Then came Mr. Burgundy who installed a car, then a Canadian tent vertically on a building facade.

The nomadism of the character or the roots of the "Cinemascope" tree evoke questions of identity and immigration.

One morning, a car pierced by a tree created the attraction at Place Mendès-France.

The work, which was to last for three days, attracted a lot of people to the neighborhood.

May be too much.

Which earned her to be burned by young people.

"I am writing a story for school children with a tree that grew. Well, they burnt the tree. The car too. Well in the afternoon, we came with chainsaws and we had removed our image, "recalls Jean-Luc Courcoult.

"We do not leave an image consumed, finished. To make people dream, it's negative," he concludes, rather amused by the incident.

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