CHRISTMAS IN DECEMBER
Every year, the Christmas period is a pretext for numerous festive and cultural activities, including the Advent Calendar. From December 1 to 23, each evening a door opens onto the world of an artist on a chosen theme. Opening at 7:00 p.m. with fondue and mulled wine!
Once again this year, under the Bains des Pâquis yurt, nestled among the 4 plane trees, shows, concerts and other artistic encounters are also planned for almost every evening in December, from December 1 to January 4, starting at 8pm.
Yuka Okazaki seeks to get as close as possible to “first” sounds. She calls on her instruments: clarinet, bass clarinet, glockenspiel, melodica, looper… Her music is mobile, risky, on the edge of insecurity. Could this be a moment of humanity…
After their musical Aube last August, and for this new “Retour Vers Le Lac Bleu” in the yurt, Yuka Okazaki once again invites actor/author Enrique-Henri Carballido. For a few bars, for a title, for a fragment, Enrique-Henri’s words, rhythmic, slamming, sometimes sung, run through Yuka’s score; a symphony of an early-morning landscape where the tops of the tallest trees rise out of the mist, covered with birds screaming their anger at the sun, which is slow to awaken the ardor of a spring already too short.
*Suites adorned with thorny
And deep bleeds of red earth;
Shaman guardian of stormy poems,
Your Guarani beauty on the Chaco sets.
The mood of civilizations implores silence.
Electrons weary of docile stars
Dare a pardon. I dare another conscience,
While the waves of the imbecile crowd
extinguish the breath of the last innocences.
*extract from the poem “Brume” by Enrique-Henri Carballido
Virtuoso singer, violinist, guitarist, ukulele player and more, Coline Linder is a woman of wild beauty and urgent humanity. A witch, in short: one of those whom the Inquisitor burned alive, because he feared this powerful feminine and this knowledge of care, of the world, and of connection.
There’s a lot of that in Coline. Her songs speak of, and I quote, “singular mythologies, flaws, questions about the times we live in, a poetic commitment to humanism, sensuality, doubts and gentleness.” Coline doesn’t hesitate to summon the rhythms, language and cosmogonies of other cultures, so that in the end she can speak only to humanity. Magical. Essential.
When she plays in trio, Coline Linder is accompanied by her two soul brothers Sébastien Chevillard, vocal embroiderer and folk guitar “transeur”, and Guillaume Lagger, breath tamer, fabulous harmonica tightrope walker and mad guembri trainer. And it’s just magnificent!
Laurent “Zodanzo” August 2024
I will be dead. This is the title of Sura’s second album. After Roar, his first big solo musical baby, and the EP breaking the silence, a sound manifesto born in Palestine, Sura is about to give birth to an album that tickles, caresses, shakes and pierces. I will be dead seriously questions the status quo of fear, productivism and competition as the normalized state of the world and its connections. Inspired by writings such as Audre lorde’s Use of the erotic, the books Pleasure activism and Radical spiritualities, and the invaluable work of artist Alok v menon, Sura reminds us of the essential, of small details, of the beauty of daring, of bodily sensations, of gestures that create links beyond walls, borders and seas. Sura, as usual, proposes play as ritual and pleasure as revolution. She takes us where laughter and tears merge, where our voices melt together, where forgiveness exists, where our condition as human beings, changing, multiple and unique, cannot be ignored.s, multiple and unique, can only face up to its inevitable destiny: death. “On the highest throne in the world, we are only ever seated on our arses”, quoting Montaigne in one of her songs, Sura highlights humility, humor and love as the ultimate weapons against the prevailing fascism. She reminds us to savor life as long as it is ours, with its joys and sorrows, its honey and its mud. I will be dead celebrates us in our respective quirks and magical powers, with determination and courage. This concert celebrates the release of the album. It will be sprinkled with surprises, tributes and butterflies, so bring a candle, a friend and something to light them with.
After being turned down for some (all) of the auditions for the revues they wanted to join, Piaf & Gloria, two clowns united by a passion for live performance, decided to set up their own troupe. After watching a few YouTube tutorials and listening to a couple of personal development podcasts, they set off….against all odds.
Arben Rexhepi – improvised clown theater dance solo, well almost
Stéphanie Quastana and Sarah Giangregorio – voice and hand duo
Jean-Luc Fornelli – poetry, readings & wild haikus. A man of the pen, the stage, the media, the action, even the situation, Jean-Luc Fornelli has been regaling us with his poetic humor since birth, and was the inventor of Swiss haikuku under the pseudonym Gossip (yes, that was him!). He’ll be coming like a mad donkey, wilder than ever!
Between African influences, hip-hop and incandescent lyricism, CÉDRIC SCHAERER TRIO takes you on an organic and explosive journey. After their 1st album “Tempête”, they’ll be playing “Kunda”, their 2nd album just released. Intense, infectious vibes. We’re going to vibrate together!
Cosmix forever by COLLECTIF DU FEU DE DIEU is an interstellar dance and interstellar choreography for a cosmic shot of pure happiness! Let’s dare to be wild, and wild together.
She looks like Julia Roberts, but has a clown nose and rotten teeth. Obsessed with death, obsessed with love, More Aura is a show about resilience, the fight for life, the sweet madness that sometimes keeps us standing. With her character of an orphaned mother, the actress asserts her place in an extended family: that of disturbing, deranged clowns.
An evening of generous performances, 1000 wonders and 1000 surprises, with the Cap Loisirs Foundation, all its talents and stars. Palettes of glitter, 12-pack explosions and mountains of joy.
In search of encounters as beautiful as they are unexpected, Peg carries her fascinating world of lost objects like a magpie’s treasure. And what if it were nothing more and nothing less than her way of trying to understand human beings and offer her point of view as a strange outsider?
Les Gaardes Suisses: on the occasion of the Escalade, we’re having the Bains gaarded by a quartet of clowns at the top of their game. Sumptuously silly, diabolically cretinous, faced with a mission far too big for them, they are also specialists in the exercise of ceremonial and guarantors of military precision before the eternal.
La Grande Adhésion: A whimsical inauguration of a cultural venue after a forced and prolonged closure, with 3 clowns who denounce quite a lot, in a collective burlesque burn-out and an unreserved fight against defeatism and savage capitalism.
In a one-on-one with the devil, a nervous actor from Geneva asks him for help. But first, the devil demands that the Helvetian show him his talents. A burlesque introduction to regional vices and customs!
The Nana’n’Air feminist choir was formed in Geneva on the occasion of June 14, 2019. It continues to agitate in demonstrations, to raise its voice by rallying other voices marching around it, to unite to make feminist militant demands resonate, with joy and anger at the same time.
Noria is a female vocal sextet from Geneva that explores and shares polyphonic treasures from here and abroad, from the Balkans and the Mediterranean shores of Greece to the Iberian Peninsula, via Sardinia and Occitania. The songs tell of life, sorrows, revolts and more.
Cosmix forever by Collectif du Feu de Dieu is an interstellar dance and interstellar choreography for a cosmic shootout of pure bliss! Let’s dare to be a little wild, and preferably wild together.
Solo project, Marc Rilliet, from Geneva, in Brussels. A combination of sonic experimentation, trad tunes and noisy slickness. Lapiaz, super blaze (attention, pronounced lapié otherwise it’s a spanking). Alpine rock formation where glaciers have retreated, leaving nothing but a chaos of sharp, jagged rocks. Just kidding ap.
“Alka Selzer. A bitter, sparkling tragedy “: the multiple attempts of an alka selzer to emerge from his pale condition. “Pita. Métamorphoses d’une pépite de café et d’une allumette”: Pita, a charming Brazilian, uses her various transformations to make Jorg, a young Swede, lose his mind and fall in love with her. “Tempo”: a nod to the passage of time. Olivia Molnar takes up three small forms emblematic of object theater created in the 80s by her father Giulio. Here, the actress-manipulator flirts with the absurd, gradually helping the objects to emerge from their utilitarian condition and exist poetically.
He’s done a lot of stuff with a lot of people, he’s done a lot of stuff in a lot of places, but now he’s going to do something new. That’s all we know. Nor does he.
Madam’Kanibal by Elodie Meissonnier – cannibal clown. We’re invited to the happiest day of her life: her wedding day. Between the imprint left on her by fairy tales and the reality of life as a couple, can we laugh at this perpetual struggle to be one, while building the us? This show is a blend of object theater, fakiric performance and burlesque.
Clara Marchina’s Imperatrice Gaya – imperialist clown. An anti-heroine with memory and speech problems, Empress Gaya is the absolute ruler of the planet Azgord. After eradicating all humans there, she plans to do the same to the entire galaxy, starting with planet Earth. She wants to start with the Bath Yurt.
Margo Chou invites us to her table and spreads her gris-gris. Her fragmentary writing evokes the physical and mental refuges of the individual, softening specialized spaces and crushing the invisible borders of our cities.
Timea Lador invites us to immerse ourselves in a latent universe filled with creatures and piracy, as we try to imagine a new world to make ours more habitable. This performance is a gentle blend of sound experience and improvised movement exploration.
After being turned down for some (all) of the auditions for the revues they wanted to join, Piaf & Gloria, two clowns united by a passion for live performance, decided to set up their own troupe.
Nótt – indie folk-rock duo – is a singer-guitarist and a drummer-keyboardist-xylophonist. At times, everything is stripped back to its bare essentials, as if to better hear the silence. At other times, it’s all bubbling up inside and banging away. On stage, the duo finds a place to express all their vulnerability. To learn to say and to take their place. To accept emptiness, noise, madness, vertigo, error, surprise and fear. The two of them share their complicity, delivering what is most fragile and most intense. Their first EP, “Ghost Town”, was released in November 2024. Influences: Patrick Watson, Radiohead, Ben Howard.
Les Bains des Pâquis is one of those places that have the wonderful distinction of putting everyone who comes here on the same level. And the cultural diversity of those who work there, from the 4 corners of the globe, is obviously not to be overlooked. It will be honored in all simplicity in the wild yurt for an evening called cabaret… that of the employees!
Sama Leï : listening to desire. Let it take root within us, between us and with those around us. To be guided by places, events and encounters, without preconceptions or anticipation. With our experience and repertoire in our luggage, let’s enjoy the fragility of the present moment. And play, sing, enter into the vibration of our instruments. Open our hearts, eliminate the superfluous, connect with each other, surprise each other. Let everyone feel free to follow, to stay, to wander, to inhabit this new space around our music and our presence.
Gwen M is passionate about the voice, co-creation and group dynamics. For several years now, she has been exploring vocal improvisation as a space for sensitive expression, transformation and connection. Gwen M has developed a subtle approach in which singing becomes a tool for awareness and connection with oneself and others, drawing on listening, structure and collective intelligence through Circlesong and co-improvisation.
A wacky universe, where poetry and Swiss chard rub shoulders, where commitment rhymes with hummus, where there’s plenty to laugh about and plenty to eat. An offbeat, spicy slice-of-life ballad. Zezette ‘s universe is to be consumed without moderation.
Everything I have to say is in my body. How can I put into words a gesture I don’t yet know? And the more I think about what I could write to you, the more I tell myself that we have as much reason to write a show as to come and see one. And since we only talk about ourselves, I’m going to talk about you.
Carte blanche given to 2 intense beings who always carry with them a generous poetic musicality open to the world.
As a soloist, Julien Lesuisse carries around his alto sax, mandolin and a machine creature (half Magneto-K7, half sequencer, half ancient drumbox, pulsing between derbouka and tambourine). But also his intense songs that invoke a South European Maghreb. Songs in Sicilian dialect, like a language of incantation. Between songs, Julien takes a microphone to tell us about the lyrics. The explanations drag on and on, spinning and shuffling the cards.
Denis Lavant is a polymorphous performer in film, theater, reading and sound, as well as a poetry enthusiast and intuitive musician. Poetry that he tirelessly embodies and hunts down on a daily basis.
