In Bonson, the festival, which will take place from July 6 to 22, is not just another exhibition in the summer program: it is an entire community opening up to art, an exchange between the artists and the people of Bonson.
In 2003, the challenge for Jean Mas and the municipality of Bonson materialized with the first Festival du Peu, crowned by the exhibition at Mamac of hundreds of “Peu” created by the residents. Generations met, and social bonds were strengthened.
Since then, the Bonson town hall and the Festival du Peu association have organized the festival every July and offer, beyond the collective exhibition, evenings of live performances and encourage artistic creation among residents by allowing them to exhibit.
With hundreds of visitors each year, the municipality of Bonson has succeeded in its challenge: making a high-level artistic and cultural event a success, encouraging artistic expression, integrating associations into the event’s organization, and giving people the desire to dream… a little.
For this 10th edition, the Festival du Peu has implemented a somewhat unusual curatorial approach, supervised by Frédérik Brandi: twelve artists who have been exhibiting at the Festival since 2003 each proposed the intervention of other artists whose work they wish to see exhibited in Bonson.
From the awakened and spontaneous spirit of these sponsors (godfathers and godmothers), a lineup of artists with different techniques and artistic movements emerges, and the coherence of this exhibition owes much to the richness of these human relationships nurtured over the years.
The Peu opens its territory to the works of these “recommended” artists and offers a 10th exhibition marked by openness and inventiveness.
Monumental works will be installed in the streets and squares of Bonson, and six exhibition venues will host the work of these artists coming from the Nice region, the Var, Paris, Japan, Norway, and the Netherlands.
The two weeks The taste for festive traditions and the curiosity of the Bonson residents are no secret. After the exhibition halls close at 8 pm, a danced tango concert (Tango Forte), reinvigorated variety performances for a laugh (AOC), wildly festive music (Country Potes), and Venetian airs from the Nice Baroque Ensemble will verify the myth of good sound in Bonson.
To relax (and eat well!), open-air meals will punctuate the fortnight, including pistou soup and a shared closing meal. The roles will be completed with tales from the Bonson company En Faim de Contes and the theatrical walk by Cie BAL: Les Comédies jardinières. “A little bit, my garden is beautiful!”, that’s the name of the best garden contest in Gabre, the lower part of the village bordering the Var. The gardeners have pampered their gardens in anticipation of the prize-giving: their lively and colorful plots will be photographed and the snapshots exhibited, while tasting these summer flavors.
It is in this part of Bonson that the Fête du Gabre gathers the residents every year for an open-air banquet and animations invented by them. Finally, the olive can boast a festival in Bonson: the Fête de l’Olivier promises a garage sale, a craft market, a prized contest of oils and olives, an olive pit throw contest (not yet approved by the French federation), and a giant ratatouille.
The 10th Festival du Peu is part of the performance series initiated on the occasion of the exhibition “À la vie délibérée” designed as the culmination of a research project conducted by Villa Arson since September 2007 — thanks to the constant support of the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes — on the history of performance on the Côte d’Azur from 1951 to the present day.
