‘Magie nouvelle’, a new method that reinvents magic: an encounter with Raphaël Navarro
From 26 to 29 March, Compagnie 14:20’s latest show ‘On m’a trouvé grandie’ (‘Ive Grown Up’) is on stage at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris. Disappearance, reappearance, levitation – this innovative show marries illusion and artistic expression to tell a powerful story.
‘New Magic’: the origin
Raphaël Navarro and Valentine Losseau began exploring contemporary circus arts when they were very young.
In 2000, they co-founded Compagnie 14:20, a pioneer in the artistic movement of ‘new magic’ (magie nouvelle). This approach reinvents magic, liberating it from its traditional forms by disorienting the senses and subverting reality to explore a theme.
Today, there are more than 60 new magic companies around the world, transforming magic into a vibrant, artistic, contemporary language by bringing together a wide range of practices: dance, theatre, circus arts, puppetry, painting, cooking, fashion, digital arts, and more.
The BNP Paribas Foundation shares this same pioneer, avant-garde spirit through its support for creative practice and expression, particularly in the performing arts.
They’ve grown up
In 2020, Valentine Losseau and Raphaël Navarro created the show La Veilleuse, Cabaret holographique (Ghost light, a holographic cabaret), a response to unprecedented world events, followed in 2022 by La Réveilleuse.
Their latest work, On m’a trouvée grandie (I’ve grown up), features an innovation they created in 2024: Zeuxis, a unique technical device that enables performers, objects or elements of the set to appear and disappear instantaneously or gradually, completely or partially. The Foundation’s support for the company helped it to imagine and develop this new process, which is a global first. This new work is inspired by a dark chapter in the history of medicine, and makes women’s invisibility tangible in an eloquent, resolutely feminist message.
The support of the BNP Paribas Foundation is crucial for us and allows us to continue inventing new ways of creating art and performance.
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