【QUEER ANALOG DARKROOM】
INTERVIEWITH LEO
FROM LA BOUCHE CABARET
FROM LA BOUCHE CABARET
I met up with Leo (they/them), who works in stage and sound management at La Bouche. We had a talk about transformations within and around La Bouche. A photo series will introduce the cabaret to you through my eyes and my Mamiya 645.
INA: Hey, Leo! Since when are you at La Bouche?
LEO: Hey! I work here almost since the beginning, very shortly after it opened. And first I was here as a volunteer. And then, little by little as the place was growing and developing, it became a paid job.
INA: And what is your current living situation?
LEO: At the moment, I live in a squat near Paris. And I have lived there for three years now. But the place is going to be expelled in a few months. Everybody will have to move and find something else. You know, most of the squats in France, but especially in Paris and in its suburbs are getting expelled and it becomes harder and harder to open new places to live in or for political organizations or anything. Since one or two years, it's been a lot more difficult.
INA: Apart from that, what transformations do you perceive in Paris at the moment?
LEO: Well, of course, Paris is getting more gentrified. I’ve lived in Paris most of my life because I was born around here. It began a long time ago in the center of Paris, which already consisted of rich districts, but now the whole city is getting more and more gentrified as well. In recent decades, even the cities near Paris have become gentrified. So, little by little, everything changes, new shops and new rich neighbors are coming. Rents are getting higher. Especially with the Olympic Games, a lot of families and students had been expelled from their homes. Rents are getting higher and higher, and fewer and fewer people can afford to live there. In Paris, a lot of buildings are also being left empty and used for financial speculation. Another example is of course Airbnb. I would say that it's harder and harder to be able to live in Paris and to even live close to Paris. Either you can afford to live in Paris, but you can do less because it's too expensive, or you can't stay in the city and are forced to move further away.
INA: Yeah, actually: How did you live the Olympic Games? Did the games massively impact Paris?
LEO: Yes. But I think it's like that in every city that hosts the Olympic Games. For example, they were moving homeless people in other cities, putting them in buses, moving them to other cities and constructing defensive architecture to prevent people from sleeping in the streets. Every person that was not “clean” enough for the city or did not give a nice image had to make space. There were also much more controls by the police. I think around 45,000 policemen came to Paris during the summer, and new security cameras were installed. They were mostly new cameras with facial recognition programmes. And of course, they will stay in place now that they are there. Besides, the price of bus and metro tickets were doubled this summer. So I witnessed all that in the year before the Olympics. For the summer, I just moved away, because it was too depressing for me. It is a real human cost to organize that type of games. On top of that, the country is in a political crisis at the moment. Right before the Olympic Games, the president dissolved the parliament and there was a huge risk that far right parties could access more power. They are gaining more and more power and the media is pushing this trend.
INA: But now back to La Bouche. How would you describe La Bouche? What is La Bouche? And also, how did you find the place?
LEO: So La Bouche is a cabaret. It's a little cabaret that does shows, once or twice a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. And, it's in the cellar of a bar/restaurant that is named the Co. It was created from scratch. The artists that co-founded La Bouche did all the work: they constructed and painted it together, I think with some of their friends.That's how it became La Bouche. It opened right after the Covid pandemic. I was working on a theater show with Mascare, who is one of the co-founders of La Bouche, and we met during work sessions. I was looking for something to do with my life, maybe I was a little lost, and I didn't really have any plans for the future or anything. And they said, well, if you want to come and you know, do the lights here, you can. So that’s how I came here. There had been only less than ten shows before I arrived, and I knew a little bit how to do the lights and sounds, but not that much. I really learned by doing, by testing things. Of course, at first I made little mistakes, but this learning process was really compatible with the cabaret, since there are a lot of jokes with the public. It really isn't a stressful but a joyful form of performance.
INA: Who else is part of the cabaret? And what is their role?
LEO: So there are, of course, the founding members of La Bouche: there is Mascare, Bili Bellegarde, Soa de Muse and Grand Soir which are four musicians and performers. The shows are mainly live songs with the piano and often little stories that go with the performances, like how they wrote the songs, why they chose that song or things like that, and a lot of jokes in between the songs as well. And the other members are Mow, who joined us maybe six months ago and who we call “un couteau suisse”, which means that they’re working in all kinds of different areas. They came to do an internship for their study program and then decided to stay. They also doing a bit of administration. And usually there is also Shiny who works at the bar, and he used to work at the Restaurant, but now I think he only works at the bar in La Bouche. Last but not least, there is also Eliott, who does the lights as well.
INA: And what does the cabaret mean to you?
LEO: Actually, before coming here, I’d never put a foot in a cabaret. So it was the first time I discovered this universe. And I think it gave me a little hope. It's a bit naive when you put it like that, but I think it's given me a bit of faith in the fact that something like this can exist. Spaces that are also work spaces. They're not just militant spaces, but work spaces where there's both creation and fantasy. It's not all serious, but it's still very political.
The fact that you can have a laugh and put on a show and it doesn't pretend to do anything else, but it's already a lot. I find that it also connects the need for spaces where there are universes summoned that are a little magical and beautiful and sensitive, and it really connects the sensibility of each artist and also a common sensibility that the public often shares and all that from being suffocated by the general atmosphere, by politics or by the city and that it gives a little breathing space and also allows you to meet. I know that often, even when I see the same numbers several times, I'm moved, I'm touched by what's being said and all that....I think it's a form of performance that appeals to me because I find it simple and direct. And compared to other forms of creation, um, I find that it's just...I don't know, there's something about it, it's simple, anyone can come and see the show and have a good time. It's not heady, it's not, you know, it's rich but it's not complicated. It's accessible. So you leave with a lighter heart. It’s had that effect on me, it's really a bit of a breath of fresh air. And frankly, it's something I didn't know at all before, and I find it really meaningful.
INA: And which objects play an important role in the performances of La Bouche? I've already seen a few objects.
LEO: Well, of course, the artists have their costumes. They transform themselves into creatures, or into a version of themselves that is slightly different from their everyday self. They can also be characters that they play with and that the public plays with as well.
And there are all the props. For example, at the end of each show, it’s the same song that is sung : Balaclava, by Namoro (the music duo/band of Mascare and Bili). So everyone on the show - including me (laughs) - is putting on a balaclava. They say : "We wear balaclavas because this song is about the heists we sometimes have to pull on ourselves." It’s about how we have to “heist” parts of us, meaning radically put pressure on our minds to free ourselves from our oppressive reflexes, so that mindsets and things can change for real.
And there’s another funny thing with the props. It can be a collaborative work with the public! In one of their numbers, Mascare is talking about postcolonialism and how colonial or racists mindsets are still very present in France or any former colonial country. And they say at the beginning of the number that instead of reading cringe quotes on tea or cereal boxes like “be the sun of your tomorrows” or things like that, it would be great if we could read quotes of Franz Fanon or James Baldwin for example. And a person in the audience, who is often coming to see the shows and is also a designer, once gifted them as a surprise a real tea box with the quote of James Baldwin. So now it’s that box that is used for the number, with the little story that goes with it. All these things create a “transforming” atmosphere : they are transforming the everyday life into a performance, and it's creating this imaginary that life is full of possibilities and changes for the better when you’re thinking about it.
INA: What other transformations can you observe in the cabaret at the performances?
LEO: As we said before, there is the transformation of the artists into characters. And what is particularly interesting is that the make-up table is visible and it's directly next to the bar, so the act of transformation itself is not hidden from the spectators.
But I think that the main transformative experience of the show is that it allows us to speak about politics. In the shows, we can talk freely, with emotion and humor, about our personal and collective experience of queerphobia, racism, social class oppression, police violence… and I think it’s a way to be political about our lives, but to transform these difficult life experiences into songs, performances, music, etc.
Several times, I talked with people that come to see the show and who are thanking us for creating a moment, an emotion… and to let people have the freedom to be touched by what is said and what is sung. Precisely, it responds to a need that the public has, a need to breathe for a moment. Well, there aren't that many of them. In general, often when people come here, I think that by the end of the evening, they've had this feeling of “Something's changed in my head”. I know a lot of people feel that it makes them want to create things. You see, the show makes you want to take part and be part of it. It makes you want to come back. It lightens things up, you say “ah but it's actually possible to say things, in this way, in a sensitive way”.
And even for the artists, I think it's transforming in the sense that it's a space that allows them, they often say, that allows them more intimacy than other big cabarets where it's a bit more intense, where you have less time in fact, and there are more people and all that. So it's not the same format at all, and here, because it's so small, there's a real closeness with the audience that makes it possible to have a real exchange at times. So I think in the end, everyone learns. And there's a lot in the performance itself that's done on the spot. So, every evening, depending on the little interactions, there are different things that change and all that. That's all there is to it. And it even transforms the restaurant because it brings a completely different audience into the basement. In the end, there's a kind of double life between these two spaces that's fun. Here, it's a bit like… a bit of a hidden place. There is no sign in the front of the restaurant or anything. It's only a mouth to ear….and to Instagram (laughs).
INA: Then how has the place changed you?
LEO: Well, it changed me, because now it is my job to do stage management and lights. And so it gave me a place to experiment and to be part of something like that. Everyone was really welcoming, it was all about meeting new people and trying things and to have that freedom of trying and failing and it's okay. Like it's not a big deal. And I could try again and I liked it and then I wanted to work somewhere else as well. But La Bouche was the first place where I worked in stage management. Apart from this “it gave me a path in life”, I think it changed me also because it made me learn how humor is a great way of releasing the pressure of all political battles. I knew it already, but I’ve never really measured how important it is to not always be serious all the time - especially when we talk about such serious subjects. That is to say : being light about it is also a way to focus on collective and self empowerment, what joy it can bring even when it’s hard. It’s also a way to preserve ourselves from being too depressed or hurt. I think it’s a way to heal ourselves.
INA: And how do you think this place is changing Paris?
LEO: I think it's changing Paris because there is no other place like this. Or just very few places. Something that makes it rare is that there are a lot of queer and lesbian artists. In cabarets and bars in Paris, there is less trans and lesbian visibility. La Bouche is creating this visibility and is political about it. And so I think that because it is so sensitive, everyone that comes here can feel that. And everyone feels that they are part of something.
INA: And last question, where in Paris do you feel free, maybe to create, but also to do other things?
LEO: For me, feeling free, for me it is not really about places, but about the people you are with.
But, there are several places here that try to make a change and a crew of people that are trying to offer new ways of organization, new ways of reclaiming a place. For example, there is a place called Fawa near Porte de la Villette, which is an old huge hangar that has been taken over, therefore linked to the town hall, and it is also a restaurant that wants to be a space for celebration and creation. La Bouche had a performance there, and they are friends, so they are quite connected. And there are a lot of people who come and try to bring this project to life and really put in a lot of energy. There is also a little queer space called La Flèche d’Or. It's in an old concert theater in the 20th arrondissement and it's a bar-restaurant that offers shows, concerts and other activities. They have the same kind of deal with the town hall to have access to the building and to be able to use the place for a few years. These are just two examples of queer bars and show rooms in Paris. There are a few others, but not many more. But at the same time, freedom is relative. Because when you are in a deal with the town hall for example, you don’t have limitless freedom.
But then there are the squats. For me, these are the spaces that still offer the most possibilities of freedom of organization because there is no outside view, there is no political control or anything. There is no control from an external authority. And what's more, it allows for self-organization to create spaces that resemble us, that correspond to concrete needs, accommodation, collective living, things like that. And for me they remain, even if they were to disappear, and even if it’s always for a short time, organizational spaces, which are the greatest spaces of freedom.