Category: Uncategorized

Une machine de ville dans les quartiers

Le « Varan de voyage » est une machine de ville, cousin du Dragon des mers. Mis en mouvement par deux personnes, il évolue au cœur de la ville de Calais, transportant sur son dos 25 passagers sur divers circuits d’une vingtaine de minute.  Le Varan peut également être utilisé en machine de spectacle lors d’évènements exceptionnels. Dans ce cas, il n’accueille pas de public sur son dos et est alors mis en mouvement par une équipe de 6 manipulateurs. Le Varan est constitué du même bois que son cousin le Dragon, l’Accoya, un pin traité pour résister aux embruns marins de la mer du Nord.

Concernant sa couleur, François Delaroziere s’est inspiré d’un Varan spécifique, le Varan Pérenti.  Cette espèce endémique d’Australie est le quatrième plus grand varan du monde.  Le varan perenti possède  une teinte bigarrée noir et beige, formant sur ses écailles un tracé noir très graphique, pouvant rappeler des détails d’ouvrage en dentelle de Calais.

Une architecture en mouvement

Afin que le Varan puisse se déplacer dans tous les quartiers, le varan ne dépasse pas les 2m50 de large. Tandis que le Dragon adopte une démarche très ample, proche de celle du Varan de Komodo, la démarche du Varan de Voyage est nettement plus resserrée, plus proche de la démarche du Varan qui a inspiré François Delaroziere, le Varan Perenti. Sa démarche évolue en fonction de sa vitesse. Ainsi, en dessous de 2km/heure, les pattes suivent le sol à la même vitesse tandis qu’au-dessus de 2 km/h, le mouvement des pattes est ralenti, donnant un côté épique et magique à la démarche de l’animal. Disposant d’un moteur hybride placé à l’intérieur de son ventre, ses batteries seront rechargées tout au long de son parcours à différents points d’arrêt.

La tête est l’organe principale d’expression et d’interaction avec le public. C’est par la tête que sont transmis les émotions de l’animal, un soin particulier est donc accordé à ces mouvements de la tête. Le varan a la particularité d’avoir une double paupière, comme de nombreux reptiles. La langue, construite en silicone, mesure plus de 80 cm et a la capacité de se replier très vite.  22 actionneurs et verins seront nécessaires pour mettre ne mouvement la tête et le cou.

Après deux ans de construction, le Varan de Voyage retrouvera enfin ses cousins, le Dragon des mers et l’Iguane Sentinelle lors d’un grand spectacle dans les rues de Calais les 7, 8 et 9 novembre 2025. Une première rencontre exceptionnelle entre les habitants et leur nouveau saurien.

Fiche d’identité du Varan de Voyage

Hauteur: 4 à 5,78 m
Largeur : 2,50 m
Longueur : 14,8 m
Poids : 22 tonnes
Vitesse : 0 à 7 km/h environ
27 verins hydrauliques – 6 verins pneumatiques
Fluides : eau, air, électricité, hydraulique
Matériaux : bois, métal, cuir, toile
Effets : Crachat, jet, bave, Brume nasale, Fumée

Manipulation : 6 manipulateurs en spectacle 1 personnes en machines de ville
Capacité d’accueil : 25 personnes
Technologie : Hybride
Propulsion : Électrique – 64 kw/h embarqué

From Friday 25 to Sunday 27 October 2024, Toulouse city centre will play host to a new urban opera by Compagnie La Machine: Le Gardien du Temple – La Porte des Ténèbres.

Following on from the 1st episode of the urban opera Le Gardien du Temple in 2018, the streets of Toulouse will once again be the setting for a major street show devised by the Compagnie La Machine and organised by Toulouse Métropole in October 2024.

Conceived by François Delaroziere and Compagnie La Machine, this monumental show follows on from the 1st part of Le Gardien du Temple, which was held in Toulouse over 4 days in November 2018.

This entirely free event will see the return of Asterion the Minotaur and Ariane the Great Spider, who will be joined on their journey by a new Machine: Lilith, the Guardian of Darkness.

From Friday 25 to Sunday 27 October 2024 – In the street of Toulouse City center –  Free
More informations +  

“Street art is the art of the unexpected.”
From 10 February 2024 at the Halle de La Machine in Toulouse, “Snow, Wind & Fire” will surprise spectators who will enjoy an unexpected experience, at the heart of the special effects of the shows put on by Compagnie La Machine.

From Saturday 10th  of February 2024, strange meteorological phenomena will converge at the Halle de La Machine in Toulouse. “Snow, Wind and Fire” will challenge visitors’ senses and surround them to create a 360-degree scene. Whether conceived with simple material or requiring complex machinery, these effects all have the same aim: to let the unexpected creep into reality. And while the surprise may be fleeting, the machine will immortalise the moment by photographing visitors’ amazement. Every participant will be able to take away a snapshot of their sensory experience. And all the better if the image is a little out of focus…

So make yourself (more or less) comfortable in front of our effects machines, brave the storms, face the flames, get lost in a whirlwind of snow and let yourself be surprised by the magic of the effects.

From 10 February – Halle de La Machine, Toulouse
Open Tuesday to Sunday – 10 am to 6 pm
More inforamtions : halledelamachine.fr

La Compagnie La Machine wishes you a happy new year 2024, full of new encounters and gatherings.
From 25 to 27 October 2024, La Machine will be back in Toulouse to present the second opus of the show «Le Gardien du Temple» by François Delaroziere.
We invite you to come and see this rare and exceptional show in the streets this autumn of 2024.

From 7 to 9 September 2023, Barbara and her two companions, Félix and Giacomo, will be back in the heart of the town of Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg, to celebrate the metamorphosis of the town and its inhabitants with a Grand Bal!

The La Machine company and Pierre De Mecquenem’s team are returning to Esch-sur-Alzette to develop the second phase of Barbara’s project, with the common unifying element of storytelling in the Esch region. La Nuit de la Culture, in partnership with La Compagnie la Machine, and the hundreds of participants in the project invite you to a gigantic village festival where folklore and the imaginary blend with the industrial identity of the Terres Rouges region.

The programme for the three days includes an “animal camp” set up on Thursday in the heart of the city, where you can meet up, make things together and enjoy a unique experience based around the project. On Friday, the three giant puppets will then invite the people of Esch and beyond to light up the rue de l’Alzette together in a “Grande Parade” with a magical, fiery atmosphere all the way to “Barbara’s Village”, where the festivities will last until Saturday evening: A fair, puppet shows, play areas, music, cookery workshops, concerts, a dance floor under the stars and a fair worthy of the best popular festivals – that’s what’s in store for spectators on a day full of colour … and human warmth! . and a lot of human warmth!

From 7th to 9th of september 2023 – From 10:00 am to 00 h 30 pm – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
All pratical informations here +

From 4 to 7 May 2023, the company La Machine presents Symphonie Mécanique orchestrated by Mino Malan and directed by François Delaroziere. A sonic and poetic immersion in the company’s mechanical universe.

La Symphonie Mécanique : The show
The spectator is invited to visit a symphony workshop and while he expects to listen to a classical concert, everything changes. He finds himself embarked on a journey where something else is playing. The workshop becomes a stage and the spectator is immersed in a flood of images and sounds that spring up from all sides. By moving around, the spectator creates his own “mix”. The sound of the flute casserole supported by the violins follows the xylo-coudre when suddenly behind it, the flip-flop organ improvises with a brass section. Suddenly the sound of the robot bass resounds, the paletoflames warm the skin, the Symphony begins its first bars. The magic happens…

Before the show, the builders will create new instruments in front of the audience and a musical workshop with Mino Malan are presented.

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Construction workshop – from 11 to 30 April 2023
Symphonic Lab – from 18 to 28 April 2023
La Symphonie Mécanique – From 4 to 7 May 2023
at the Halle de La Machine in Toulouse
Infos and reservations halledelamachine.fr 

From 4 February, discover the exhibition “Dans les cartons” in which more than a hundred sketches by François Delaroziere are unveiled inside and outside the Halle de La Machine à Toulouse.

While browsing the exhibition, visitors will discover eight major themes that run through the artist’s work, from the animal and plant kingdom to the fairground arts and architecture. Among these sketches, several are at the origin of the great machines known to the general public, such as Grand Éléphant de Nantes, Long Ma, le cheval-dragon, built for Peking or the Dragon de Calais. Other sketches, however, are completely unpublished and have never been presented to the public.  These drawings exist for themselves, outside of spectacular production. They are a sensitive language. A concrete trace of the imagination and the ability of this contemporary artist to make analogies between nature, drawing and mechanics.  A virtuosity that is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s work, which is as plethoric as it is eclectic.

In imagining this exhibition, François Delaroziere wanted to integrate painting machines in order to put the visitor in motion by integrating him into the creative process. Five new machines will thus join the mechanical bestiary of the Halle de La Machine: the painting machine, the catapult, the pointillist, the machine for drawing with the wind and the calligraphy machine. Five machines that will allow visitors to create a work of art, collective or individual, but in any case, unique.

Exhibition from 4 of february to 30 august 2023
Halle de La Machine – Toulouse
More informations : halledelamachine.fr

Incandescences combines fire and the visual arts to transform urban space into captivating tableaux, inviting the public to rediscover the city. The show goes beyond pyrotechnics: it encourages exchanges between La Machine’s pyrotechnicians and local residents. For 3 evenings, lanterns, torches and mobile braziers were distributed to the public, who were able to wander around the castle illuminated by flames and pyrotechnic sparks!

For the inauguration of the Caen Millennium on 20, 21 and 22 March 2025, more than 100,000 people from Caen rediscovered their renovated castle, lit up by a thousand fires. In the glow of the flames, the people of Caen let themselves go for a night stroll and celebrated. A magnificent poetic and popular moment.