Plein Air Festival: three days of performances and art in Breil-sur-Roya in September

What if, while picking up your baguette, you stumbled upon a dance performance or a temporary visual installation? This is the challenge taken up every year by the Plein Air festival in Breil-sur-Roya. For three days, artists are invited to take over the washhouse, the lakeside, and public squares. Created five years ago by Lélia Decourt, head of public services at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice, and Rébecca François, also an exhibition curator at Mamac, the event was born from a desire to "present art in spaces that are not dedicated to it," explains Rébecca François.

An approach that breaks with more traditional artistic codes: "At the museum, people have to dare to walk through the door. It's not a question of a financial barrier, it's a cultural barrier." The guiding idea is simple, but powerful: to allow everyone to come face to face with a creation, without having asked. Entirely free and outdoors, the festival focuses on surprise and ease of access to reach a wide audience. For its fifth edition, the event offers a program structured around the theme of water.

Concerts, theatrical strolls, ballets, clown duets...

The uniqueness of the Plein Air festival also lies in its participatory dimension and local roots. "All summer long, we organize workshops that give rise to co-created works," explains Rébecca François. The program mixes emerging artists and historical figures, such as Ange Leccia, patron of this fifth edition of the festival. "He is a Corsican artist who became known in the 90s for his videos depicting waves in slow motion," explains Rébecca François.

This year, festival-goers will be able to discover Corps Fluides , a collective and participatory dance created with choreographer Eugénie Andrin, or Tremper la montagne , a collective textile installation created with Eva Medin. You can also stroll through Breil with the actors of the Embrayage à Paillettes, take part in a baletti with the Nice group Nux Vomica or laugh with the clown duo of the company Le Grand Large…

This participatory approach, coupled with a requirement for artistic quality, makes the Plein Air festival an original model of cultural dissemination in rural areas.

Friday, September 5 (7 p.m. - 1 a.m.), Saturday, September 6 (10:30 a.m. - 1 a.m.), Sunday, September 7 (11 a.m. - 6 p.m.). Free and open-air stroll. Detailed program at www.entredeux-artentreprise.fr