One year of Inward-Outward
365 days later… Inward-Outward is a young plant that I have continuously watered for the past 12 months. 2018-2019 was filled with collaborations and productions.
While my energy is focused on the months to come, I am taking the opportunity of Inward-Outward’s first anniversary to look in the rear-view mirror and tell you a little more about the projects I worked on this past year.
Music festival production
As a production manager, I worked on two festivals. Their vision and atmosphere had seduced me while volunteering on their 2018 editions, making me want to be more involved in 2019.
Pete The Monkey
In October 2018, I joined the Pete The Monkey team as co-leader of the new Green team. Sensitive to environmental issues through the founding history of the festival, Pete The Monkey's team wanted to improve its practices in order to minimise its environmental impact. Based on the recommendations of the English organisation A Greener Festival, which had conducted an audit during Pete The Monkey 2018, we drafted a strategy, defined the actions to be carried out and put in place a retro-planning in order to respect as much as possible "Mother Nature", honored at the 2019 edition. The Green team, together with all the other teams, has redesigned all aspects of the festival in terms of eco-responsibility: optimisation of the use of electricity and water, reduction and better management of solid waste, decrease of the festival-goers’ carbon footprint, content curating for the Amphitheater scene, raising public awareness…
Picture taken by Hellena Burchard
Festival 36H
Having accumulated some knowledge and eco-production skills via my experience on the event production of Pete The Monkey, I put those to use for Festival 36H as a team member of their Backstage and Catering team. My focus was on reducing and better managing solid waste. As a result the festival: changed their supplier of beers (Parisian craft beers) to be provided in reusable plastic cups (ecocups), used a biodegradable tableware made from recycled materials, benefited from a partnership with a brand of reusable plastic bottles to equip each artist with one…
Picture taken by Mathieu Foucher
Due to their size, music festivals obviously have a considerable impact on the environment. However, there are ways to minimise this impact and it is this approach to production that fascinates me, that I adopt and that I intend on developing.
Artist management
As part of my accompaniment of artists, I exchanged with them and considered opportunities to showcase their work. As a result of our discussions and common vision, I had the pleasure of organising two exhibitions and a concert.
The two Inward-Outward exhibitions were held at The PopUp! gallery (the third is coming very soon, here for more info). In March, the lithographer Clotilde Guillaume presented her series entitled "Mon Jardin". Clotilde's colorful artworks announced the arrival of spring and invited the public into the artist’s world inspired by plants and textiles. In April, it was Louise Mézel’s turn to exhibit her "Animaux": Dalmatians, horses, cats… populated the walls of the gallery. The black and white treatment of lithographs brought out the magic of Louise's creatures.
On May 18th, the musician Frédéric Nogray played his singing crystal bowls at the musée d’art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne in Rochechouart as part of the nuit des musées. Coming back after a break in his musical career, Frédéric returned to his bowls to the delight of the public, hypnotised by his unusual music composed of long wave developments ranging from very low to very high sonic vibrations. Frédéric's gliding music invaded a castle room for two 50-minute performances.
I thoroughly enjoy the accompaniment of artists, whether regular or punctual, as it inspires me and stimulates me. I am proud of these collaborations and look forward to future joint projects.
One year from Inward-Outward and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for my business! Despite the challenges inherent to this solitary professional journey, being my own boss and giving shape to my vision is a source of satisfaction and fulfillment thanks to the beautiful encounters, exciting collaborations, stimulating reflections ... From this first year I keep in memory the happiness and pride of the artists when given the chance to present their work, and the success of both festivals resulting from months of preparation. Inward-Outward’s first chapter closes and the second opens ... Onward!