Shadow Play

On the occasion of the trade mission organized by Export Québec, we rolled out a new storytelling experience…

This scenography bringing together theater and cinema stems from a passion for paper art, shadow theaters, and storytelling.

It was after the creation of MoonGARDEN in 2012 that the idea came to us to take shadow theaters out of the spheres and display them in broad daylight.

Shadow Play was presented for the first time in Shanghai at the Modern Art Museum in 2018. For this performance, we recreated the city of Shanghai with its parks, bridges, and buildings, but this installation is completely customizable!

The show lasts 5 minutes and is followed by 20 minutes of interactivity where the audience is invited, using the light from their mobile phones, to come and discover the sounds of the city. The set then transforms into a giant garden of paper cutouts, and the audience can come to reactivate moments from the film and listen to the sounds of the city.

Here is the story of this Shadow Play…

At nightfall, a man living in Shanghai returns home. He crosses the bustling city and a park before arriving in his residential neighborhood. As soon as the door opens, he goes up to his studio, puts on his outfit, grabs a pair of scissors, and starts cutting.

What he cuts out are little beings. By placing them in the scenery, their shadows come to life and allow them to invade the city. To run, roughhouse, climb on buildings…

But, interrupted by knocks on the door, they freeze. The landlord wants his rent… It is lurking in the dark that they await his departure. And as he walks away, a feeling of euphoria washes over them.

For once freed, it is paint that they will use to submerge the sleeping city.