Tickets

Free

 

 

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Photos: Christian Brault

From February 12 to March 12, 2024

Walkabout exhibit presented in Outremont
borough shop windows

 

The Marionnettes en vitrines! walkabout exhibit, eagerly awaited by locals every spring since 2012, turns Outremont borough shop windows into charming art galleries as part of the 19th edition of Festival international de Casteliers.

This year, Master and Mentees  are in the spotlight, as we celebrate not only the works of Montréal puppeteer, set designer and director Patrick Martel, but also those of his graduate students from UQAM’s contemporary puppet theatre program, and the up-and-coming Québec artists from Véronique Lespérance’s classes at Collège Notre-Dame.

More than fifty magnificent puppets by Patrick Martel and some fifty puppets created by up-and-coming artists will be on display in shop windows on Van Horne, Bernard, and du Parc avenues. There will also be puppets presented at Théâtre Outremont and the Maison internationale des arts de la marionnette (MIAM).

 

Guided tour of Marionnettes en vitrines! Master and Mentees
with exhibit curator Pavla Mano
Saturday, February 17, 2024 @ 1:30 p.m. Departure and arrival: MIAM
Sunday, March 10, 2024 @ 1:30 p.m. Departure and arrival: Théâtre Outremont
Running time: 1 h
Free

 

Download the walkabout itinerary

 


Participating shop windows

Maison internationale des arts de la marionnette (MIAM) – Théâtre Outremont – Amango Cacao – Yannick fromagerie – Caisse Desjardins des Versants du mont Royal – Mission Santé – Boutique Citrouille – Iris – Librairie du Square – La boutique du fleuriste – Home Hardware – Nettoyeur et cordonnerie Outremont – Centre thérapeutique Mince Alors ! – Coiffure Alicia – Ongles GG – Ilion – Boutique scolaire Lycée – Boutique TOUT TERRAIN – Nettoyeur Vert et Centre de Couture – Restaurant Doan – Lescurier – Fleuriste Gala – RBC – De Bons Petits Plats – Groupe Avis Budget – Caffè della pace

 

Curator:  Pavla Mano

 

Casteliers gratefully acknowledges support from REALTA, real estate agency, and all the businesses in the Outremont borough that have made this fabulous walkabout exhibit possible.

 

Company

Patrick Martel has created puppets of all kinds for several theatrical productions and television series. He has worked with many companies, including the Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Éloize, Juste pour rire and Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts. With 4D Arts (Lemieux/Pilon), he was the puppeteer, choreographer and puppet designer for Cité Mémoire, a permanent urban video installation in Montreal.

 

“I’ve been lucky enough to have been in contact with the inspiring imaginations of puppeteers who came before me, and to be able to learn from their experience,” says Patrick Martel. “I’m also lucky enough to be working with a new generation of puppetry artists, who I can share the fruits of my own experience with. And I can learn from them, from the freshness of their vision, from their sensitivity. The inspiration is mutual. It’s really all these encounters that feed the pleasure I get from doing this job.”

 

For 25 years, he worked with the Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays on over a dozen productions as a puppet designer, performer, or stage director. In 2004, he received a special mention from the Arlyn Award Society for À nous deux!, one of the company’s landmark productions.

He teaches at the Université du Québec à Montréal, in the bachelor’s and graduate programs in contemporary puppet theatre (DESS).

He has designed puppets for and performed in Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall and The Storyville Mosquito, whose world tours are still underway.

With the Cirque du Soleil, he was a coach and the designer of all the puppets for the show Toruk – The First Flight, including the giant puppet for the title character.

Other recent projects as puppet designer and coach include: Nezha, l’enfant pirate, with the Cirque Éloize, Scooby Doo live tour, by Monlove, and the opera Die Zauberflöte for the Glyndebourne Festival (Sussex, UK). This production is also available in a movie version, which has been broadcast on the BBC.

Patrick Martel is also the costume designer for the television series, Chanteurs masqués, produced by Productions Déferlantes and aired on TVA and TVA+.

For sharing their artworks with us, Casteliers wishes to thank Patrick Martel, Productions Déferlantes, the young artists in Véronique Lespérance’s classes at Collège Notre-Dame, and the next generation of professional puppeteers :

Gabrielle Chabot, Maggie Winston, Maïa Ménard-Bélanger, Marie-Claude Daoust, Marika Karsslon, Laurence Petitpas, Sophie Deslauriers, Stéphane Garon, and Valise Théâtre

 

 

A look at a few of the productions Patrick Martel has worked on: