The Wandering world
December 2016 - Installation - Gap Game workshop - Port of the Rhine - Strasbourg
5 days in-situ. A theme : built district, lived district. 5 days to discover and conquer a new space.
We are Les Dérailleurs.
Join us in this fallow land and discover our adventure.
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Gap Game : international workshop between design students of Strasbourg (France), Krakow (Poland) and Suzhou (China).
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Les dérailleurs : Ossiann Roux / Florent Alexandre / Clémence Ollier / Elisa Guillet
Day 1
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WANDERING
We get close to the railways. The horizon has barely disappeared under this thick white fog. Everything is indistinct and blurred away, as if all is still half-asleep. We’re diving into a phantasmagoric setting and meet a little abandoned house. Should we open the door? Softly pushing the door, we discover an open scenery under our eyes, with a stack of old french network rail documents, then tables and chairs, nominative racks, weird undefinable handmade weapons hanged on the wall, a washing machine… It’s a real stories vestige. But, some people really lived here? We spot colorful graffitis, traveler and wanderer marks. This house is a true place of expression. All these elements let us imagine and dream about a lot of tales. Going out, a big green wagon is standing alone, it’s a real travel symbol which carries stories and urban legends: we want to reveal them.
Day 2
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TREASURE
The list :
A sofa: It’s like a comfy cocoon where i can relax looking at the clouds.
A broom: I wish i could fly away with it.
A chair: On this throne, I can admire my kingdom.
An can: Look at the nice flowers growing inside.
A container: Very useful to grill my marshmallows.
A tyre: Best swing ever!
A bottle opener: Without it, I can’t explore the wild world.
An alcohol bottle: I can correspond with my sailor friends.
A spray can: To mark my presence.
Security shoes: With them, I can climb the higher mountains.
Gloves: I can make my own puppet show.
A ball: Became an hot air balloon.
All those items were found in the abandoned wilderness. This list is more than a listing of common objects. Even if at the first sight they look like garbage, for the wanderer they are like treasures. Those life pieces become dream pieces.
We want to stage them in a travel symbol: the wagon.
Day 3
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BOUNCE
Today, something really disturbing happened. When we arrived at the wagon to get the measure of it, railway workers were working on it. Are they moving it, removing it? What can we do if our magic wagon disappear? For a while, we’re lost. Our minds are boiling, we are examining all the other possibilities the place offers us.
Can we recreate a fake wagon? Are we gonna beg the railway workers to let our loved wagon here? Should we completely leave the idea of the wagon? So many questions, and finally an answer.
The wilderness will be the place of a wonderful treasure hunt. At the beginning, players have a map. This map is leading them to wanderer’s objects. When they have collected all the items, everybody come to the sofa. They can replace them in a scene of the wanderer day dream. Everything has its place and reveal shorts poem bringing up a fantastic universe.
We are building a structure to place the scene in it. If the wagon is still here friday, we’ll place the structure in it, and if not, no problem, we have the solution.
Day 4
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THE BET
As we said yesterday, the wagon could sadly disappear. To get round this problem, we decide to make a wood structure. There, first good new, the wagon is still here! We build the big cube and decide to place it in the wagon. Oops, we have a little problem… The cube is bigger than the wagon door. But don’t worry! Our magicians team succeeds this wonderful trick! The sun is shining, the cube is in the wagon, we are building the scenery and ending the making of our game, everything is perfect. But the possibility that the wagon disappears in the night is still here. There is the bet: should we hide our cube somewhere (but moving it could be really hard), or should we let the cube in the wagon and take the risk that EVERYTHING disappears in the night? We are players, and bet that everything will stay here… You’ll discover it with us tomorrow!
Day 5
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THE SHOW MUST GO ON !
«Welcome in the dream world full of treasures of the tramp. He particularly feels affection for different kind of items of his miserable life. That’s why we are going to give you a map and a pair of gloves Keep your eyes open and find us then to meeting point.»
A railway worker cames during the game. We, the Dérailleur, were perturbed by him. He said we didn’t be here and police officer might be here. However the wagon is access free gap. […]
«Well, now, all items are here and we will be enable to open the doors of imaginary trip of the tramp because he dreams from wagons to wagons. These objects take an other dimension. They are some hope for desperate life of tramp. Put and hang up these objects.items in the scene and discover poetics and oneiric fantasizing. Look for some other way something which are around of us, inside urban wilderness. Le Port du Rhin isn’t only a picture, it is the fantasy and the dream of these occupants too.»
