00:00Time now for Paris des Arts. We meet singer and rapper Meryl and sculptor Agnes Bayon.
00:30My name is Agnes Bayon. I have two artist parents, so I fell in love with it when I was little.
00:41I have always made characters. I do this to fight against death, because we leave a trace, we leave characters that will survive us.
00:51My music is real. I am close to my emotions when I write.
01:00My heart was a choice of fire. I took the last train, escalation, escalation.
01:06But in Paris, we were the stars, the stars, the stars. At home, no one made me cry.
01:11You will have understood, this week in Paris des Arts, our guests are the sculptor Agnes Bayon, who will receive us in her studio,
01:17and the singer Meryl, who gave us an appointment right in front of a mythical room, the Elysee Montmartre, it's over there.
01:25She never makes a choice when she's hungry. In the shadows, no big brother.
01:29They attribute themselves to the light. I live in a thought like that.
01:33And my students will already know my hunger. Jealousy is a concept.
01:37We are very, very far, Meryl, from the Holy Spirit. This city, which is yours, in Martinique, is 6,000 km from here.
01:45We are in the 18th arrondissement in Paris, but we are a little at home anyway, in this room.
01:51Yes, we are at home. My first concert was here, so it's a very, very good memory.
01:56Here we are, we're visiting.
02:01In two centuries, she saw everything, she knew everything.
02:04The great balls of the early 19th century, the golden age of the cabaret, of the French cancan, the theater of Zola or Maupassant,
02:11the boxing fights, and music, of course, that of great French and foreign artists.
02:17Transformed into a concert hall in the 1970s, it could have disappeared after a giant fire and five years of closure,
02:24but it finally regained its place among the most beautiful halls in Paris as early as 2016.
02:35This very, very first Parisian concert was there, in April 2023.
02:40How did you approach it? Were you serene or rather anxious?
02:44I was anxious, because it was my first date, we had filled it in 12 days, so there was anticipation.
02:50So, obviously, my musicians and I had a lot of pressure.
02:54But it went well, the stage was there, the people were there.
02:58So, how is the Parisian audience? Is it as bright in the eyes as the general public, or is it necessary to move it a little?
03:05No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:09It's a gift of good memories.
03:11I even do the festival tour.
03:13The festivals here are great.
03:15After a two-year absence,
03:17a date like this,
03:19I felt loved, it gave me strength for the future.
03:21The music started in Martigny,
03:23which is a crossroads of cultures,
03:25of influences.
03:27Where are you going to draw yours?
03:29My influences,
03:31I take them from home.
03:33Reality,
03:35social,
03:37it's my environment.
03:39I often go back there
03:41to make my songs.
03:43I have a lot of compositions,
03:45I work with a lot of compositions from there.
04:07We are talking about this new album,
04:09Caviar 1.
04:11Can you tell me a few words
04:13that you like a lot,
04:15or a chorus?
04:17In Midnight, I say
04:19yesterday looks like tomorrow,
04:21since there is more, but not enough.
04:23And the past never stops
04:25coming back.
04:27I can't stop coming back.
04:29Do you come back to the past a lot?
04:31Yes.
04:33In fact,
04:35I think about it a lot
04:37so as not to go back in it.
04:39It's the limit.
04:41It's the limit.
05:03It's true that I often heard you
05:05talk about revenge.
05:07I often heard you say that
05:09you would be Meryl Lantiez.
05:11Why do you say that?
05:13Because here in France,
05:15there are a lot of categories.
05:17It's like that in France.
05:19To identify someone,
05:21we find an objective,
05:23and the objective is going to be that.
05:25I think that above all,
05:27before talking about my incredible beauty,
05:29we're going to talk about my origins.
05:33But still,
05:35maybe we can talk about your music first.
05:37Do you feel like we're talking about your origins first?
05:39Yes.
05:41We're talking about my music,
05:43but it's going to come back.
05:45Why do you talk about revenge?
05:47Because it wasn't easy.
05:49And today it's going a little better.
05:51Did you feel like you had to fight
05:53to get where you are today?
05:55I think everyone has to fight.
05:57And I think there are people
05:59who have to fight a little more
06:01than others,
06:03depending on a lot of things.
06:07One, two, three, four, you see
06:09I leave one for them,
06:11I take everything, I make the deal
06:13They will never like my taxes,
06:15true CEO
06:17It could even be the next Mercato
06:19At home, we didn't do business
06:21So what's next?
06:23Because you also created your own label,
06:25which is also called Kaviar.
06:27Why did you create this label?
06:29Because we have a sound there.
06:31And I like that it belongs to us.
06:33Every community
06:35has to keep its intellectual property.
06:37It's good for the permanence of culture,
06:39for a lot of things.
06:41It's not mean,
06:43it's just that you have to build
06:45with what you really are
06:47to open up to the world.
06:49If you don't know who you are,
06:51you're going to get lost
06:53without knowing where you're going.
06:55I have no doubt about that.
06:57You know who you are,
06:59but do you know where you're going?
07:01Yes, I know where I'm going,
07:03but I don't know where I'm going.
07:29We now meet Agnès Bayon
07:31and her dozens of friends
07:33from papier-mâché, resin or bronze.
07:37A huge holiday resort
07:39keeps the artist company
07:41in her Parisian studio.
07:43There are dancers, swimmers,
07:45demonstrators at the high point,
07:47contemplatives lost in their thoughts
07:49or scratching the horizon.
07:57Hello Agnès.
07:59When you enter your studio,
08:01you almost want to walk on tiptoe
08:03because all these sculptures,
08:05all your characters
08:07impose a certain silence.
08:09Is there something of the order
08:11of the collection?
08:13Yes, and they're white,
08:15so there aren't many colors.
08:17It's not loud.
08:19Making white sculptures
08:21allows you not to talk too much,
08:23not to talk too much about anecdotes.
08:25I try to make a strong but discreet appearance.
08:27I know you're very sensitive to emotion.
08:29What drives you?
08:31I like people to project themselves
08:33in what I do.
08:35Everyone has their own story
08:37when they look at the sculpture.
08:39It can be scary, it can make them smile,
08:41it can scare them.
08:43The blue, washed-out gaze
08:45is very present in all these characters.
08:47I know it's very important to you.
08:49Is that one of the things
08:51you put first?
08:53Yes, exactly.
08:55The gaze is very present.
08:57He hasn't painted it yet,
08:59but he'll see it soon.
09:01He hasn't painted it yet
09:03because I sculpt and then I paint.
09:05As I have a painting training,
09:07painting is important to me.
09:09Even if the nuances are very discreet,
09:11it's important to paint,
09:13to make people think
09:15of the color of the skin
09:17with the transparency of the skin.
09:19I'm very curious.
09:21How do you do that?
09:23Do you put a little water on the paper?
09:25Yes, it's a paste
09:27that I make
09:29like ceramics.
09:31It's a paste that molds
09:33and then hardens in the air.
09:35So you can mold
09:37these molds at first
09:39and then you can sculpt it.
09:41You can dig, you can detail a lot of things.
09:43Your sculptures,
09:45what's amazing
09:47is that they have different scales.
09:49Some are very small,
09:51others are larger than nature.
09:53You don't tell the same story
09:55depending on the scale.
09:57No, because I try
09:59to make them
10:01as present as they are large.
10:03I try not to make them
10:05as large as nature
10:07because it blocks the imagination.
10:09There are themes.
10:11There are swimmers,
10:13there are demonstrators.
10:15At the moment,
10:17you're working on demonstrators.
10:19At the moment,
10:21I'm working on the theme
10:23of the pantheon of Jaurès
10:25that defended the minors.
10:27I made a group of demonstrators
10:29with Jaurès.
10:31I'm part of the portrait of Jaurès.
10:35What about the hands?
10:37Isn't it hard?
10:39The hands are as expressive
10:41as a face.
10:43It's important.
10:45The movement of the hands
10:47changes everything in a character.
11:03Agnès, we'll come back
11:05to see the final result.
11:07We'll see the doors
11:09of your secret garden.
11:13And now,
11:15stay with us
11:17for the heart attack
11:19of the Palais des Arts.
11:27You've always dreamed
11:29of pushing the doors of the Elysée,
11:31the seat of the Presidency of the Republic,
11:33to discover the backstage of the Palace.
11:35Not at the 55,
11:37or at the Faubourg Saint-Honoré,
11:39but here, in front,
11:41at number 88,
11:43in this new space called the Elysée.
11:45Let's go.
11:55Hello, Yannick Desbois.
11:57Hello, Valérie.
11:59Thank you for welcoming us.
12:01This place was born
12:03for everyone to take a step
12:05in the Elysée Palace.
12:07And I say a step by drawing,
12:09because we can't show everything.
12:11What did you choose to highlight?
12:13We focused on three main themes.
12:15The building itself, its history,
12:17its architectural evolution over time.
12:19It's a 300-year-old building.
12:21The way in which the President
12:23uses the Elysée Palace,
12:25to receive foreign delegations,
12:27its diplomatic and protocol vocation,
12:29and the people who work there.
12:31It's very important to us,
12:33because the Elysée wouldn't be
12:35without its agents.
12:37It's a lot of jobs,
12:39often derived from French heritage
12:41and exceptional know-how.
12:43So we chose to highlight them.
12:45Let's see the Golden Office,
12:47because I think it's one of the highlights
12:49of this museum.
12:51This office has a history.
12:53It's a very emblematic office,
12:55a national property,
12:57but it hasn't left the Presidency
12:59until we worked on it.
13:01I think General de Gaulle
13:03had trouble sliding his legs
13:05under the desk,
13:07so he came up with a little trick.
13:09Exactly. General de Gaulle was very tall,
13:11so we raised the desk a bit,
13:13or his knees wouldn't fit.
13:15So it's his chair and his desk,
13:17but we didn't keep it.
13:21It's really a dive into history.
13:23What do you propose here?
13:25A journey, an immersion?
13:27We mention the great additions,
13:29the great evolutions of the Palace,
13:31with Napoleon III's party room,
13:33then the Winter Garden,
13:35then the party room of Sanicarno
13:37for the Universal Exhibition,
13:39and the last evolution,
13:41the verreer by Daniel Buren,
13:43which has become emblematic.
13:45These are things that the French see today,
13:47but they're not necessarily aware
13:49of the evolution of the building.
13:51See you soon for new Paris des Arts highlights.
13:53Thank you very much.
13:57© Paris Saint-Germain
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