Fey Arts

Northern Ireland, Germany, Egypt, the United States, England, Switzerland, Belgium and France are the countries that the curators Salomé Burstein and Gabrielle Veyssiere have brought together in Feÿ this year. Having entered into residency the week before the festival, the different artists were able to meet and explore the spaces of the castle. For some, the choice was immediate: it was from the first day, for example, that Mika Oki and Maoupa Mazzocchetti set up their rehearsal studio around the well, to make trumpet improvisations resound throughout the week. Slipping microphones and sound amplifiers to a depth of more than 40 metres, their experiments then aroused the curiosity of the festival-goers who came to lean over the edge of the precipice, during the opening night of the festival. Before them, the kaleidoscopic choreographies of the Nasa4Nasa collective, playing with the trees of the forest to create sensual optical illusions, had already started the festivities. Using clay (recovered in Saint-Armand en Puisaye), the London artist William Cobbing also gave the first of his three performances scheduled for the weekend. Friday evening was finally lulled by the verses of Octavio Paz, sung in Italian by Radio Hito, and the melodies elaborated by Nicki Fehr and Niklas Niki Blomberg from a piece of wood found in the forest and apricots gathered in the vegetable garden. Trading these fruits and their synthesizers for the simplicity of an acoustic guitar, the duo set Chef Mathieu Moity's culinary performance to music the following day at lunchtime. Arne Vinzon's heady synth-pop followed suit, making the audience dance under a thirty degree heat wave, facing an improbable view of the Yonne valley. The rest was then savoured under the trees and the cosmic sweetness of Sphere of Existence, an album from which Antoine Kogut reinvented an exciting concert of about fifty minutes. A few hours later, he took up his saxophone again, perched on a referee's chair, to accompany the canzone popolare of the Italo-pop duo Itaca, during a fiery live on the tennis court. The latter followed the pyre lit by Clara Claus, inviting spectators to place their wishes and thoughts in the embers of a fire made of painted wood scraps from the opening of the festival. Creating a journey from the depths of the forest, this performance entitled Answering the Smoke cemented one of the highlights of Feÿ, after a moving solo by Belfast choreographer Oona Doherty on the "Star Square". It was in the tent that Oona gave a participative version on Sunday, proposing that festival-goers take a seat on the stage to give free rein to the expression of their bodies... until a duet was improvised with Elie, a market gardener who had transported his "Seasonal Baskets" from the Toucy market to the Château du Feÿ to offer lush vegetables to festival-goers. Sunday also saw the works of the MORPH artists' collective come to life thanks to the movements of the prodigy Vinson Fraley, a 24-year-old dancer from Baltimore who travelled to Villecien to present his first creation. Two moments softened the last rainy day of the festival: the Sunday Hypnagogy dreamed up by Buvette on the occasion of the festival and the theatrical concert by the mysterious Walls and Birds, both reinventing the work Conversation Pit created by the artist duo Jacent Varoym last year.

This year, Feÿ's live music and performance curators, Salomé Burstein and Gabrielle Veyssiere, gathered talents from Northern Ireland, Germany, Egypt, the USA, England, Switzerland, Belgium, and France. Travelling from far away to the village of Villecien (population 400), the artists entered the château for a week-long residency before the festival itself in order to adapt to the space and explore all the possibilities it had to offer. Fo some, it was love at first sight: on the very first day, Mika Oki and Maoupa Mazzocchetti fell head over heels for the château's well and set up their studio around it. Sliding microphones and sound amplifiers more than 40 meters down the well, their sonic experiments sparked the curiosity of festival-goers on opening night, who came to peer into the mouth of the well to investigate. Earlier that evening, the kaleidoscopic choreographies of the Nasa4Nasa Collective, who played with the trees of the forest to create sensual optical illusions, had kicked off this three-day artistic marathon. Using local clay (Saint-Armand en Puisaye), London-based artist William Cobbing also gave the first of his three burlesque performances scheduled throughout the weekend. The evening was then enveloped by the rhythm of Octavio Paz's verses, sung in Italian by Radio Hito, as well as melodies developed by Nicki Fehr and Niklas Niki Blomberg using a piece of wood and apricots collected in the vegetable garden. Exchanging these fruits and their synthesizers for a simple acoustic guitar, the duo gave a special concert the next day, on the occasion of chef Mathieu Moity's culinary performance "Eating the Landscape." Arne Vinzon's heady synth-pop followed on Saturday afternoon, with the crowd dancing while taking in an astounding view of the Yonne Valley (despite the 30° heat). Dancers then took a rest under the trees amidst the cosmic sweetness of Sphere of Existence, an album for which Antoine Kogut reinvented a 50-minute concert. A few hours later, he played the saxophone during the fiery concert given on the tennis court by the maverick Italo-pop duo Itaca. Before dancing to their canzone popolare, festival-goers were invited to share a moment of contemplation around a pyre built and lit by artist Clara Claus. Illuminating a path from the depths of the forest, this performance cemented one of Feÿ's memorable moments: the breathtaking solo given by Belfast-born choreographer Oona Doherty. After dancing in a clearing nicknamed the "Place de l'étoile", Oona gave a second version of her piece in the château's tent on the Sunday. Creating this time a participatory performance, she asked visitors to let their bodies freely express themselves. This instruction was rigorously followed by Elie, market gardener who had brought his luscious "Paniers de Saison" from Toucy to Feÿ, who ended up improvising a duo with Oona. On Sunday also, prodigious 24-year-old Baltimore dancer Vinson Fraley presented his first creation amongst the functional art pieces of Dutch artist's collective MORPH. The Sunday Hypnagogy composed by musician Buvette during his stay at the château then came to soften this final, rainy afternoon. It was followed by Feÿ's ultimate performance: theatrical, dada-esque and dreamy concert given by the mysterious group Walls and Birds in the "Conversation Pit" - a site-specific artwork created by artist-duo Jacent Varoÿm for the festival's first edition.