Jeu - Yvain !

Éric Giraudet de Boudemange et Tomavatars

June 30, 2018
February 8, 2019

Date

From Saturday June 30, 2018 to Friday February 8, 2019

Following Éric Giraudet de Boudemange's residency at the ESPE in Rennes, La Criée invited the artist to develop his research in the form of a digital creation, in collaboration with game designer Tomavatars. Together, they devised the first instalment of a video game inspired by the artist's universe. Entitled Yvain!, this adventure game is a free interpretation of Chrétien de Troyes' courtly novel Yvain, le chevalier au lion. It features references to medieval literature, the figure of the wild man and the disillusioned lover, mixed with different languages of popular culture (graffiti, films, TV series). The game was presented in the form of performances with Éric Giraudet and Tomavatars in January 2019 at the Fondation Ricard (Paris) and in February 2019 at La Criée contemporary art centre (Rennes). It is freely accessible in the Sources space at La Criée and can be downloaded free of charge on Mac and PC.

Yvain! is a video game – a work to be played – by visual artist Éric Giraudet de Boudemange, developed in collaboration with video game creator Tomavatars and produced by La Criée centre d'art contemporain.
This experimental first-person adventure game is inspired by a passage from Yvain ou le Chevalier au lion, written in the 12th century. Heartbroken, the knight Yvain flees civilisation. He ventures deep into the forest, shedding his clothes and losing his speech and reason.
In this contemporary interpretation, we guide the main character, to the rhythm of his lament, through an absurd and offbeat medieval universe, at the crossroads of courtly love and Game of Thrones.

The game consists of floating platforms.
You move from island to island by jumping, falling, being propelled by catapults, or passing through teleportation portals. You encounter characters whose presence alters the course of your adventure.

Free download for Mac and PC : la-criee.itch.io

This digital creation is the result of a two-way partnership: with video game designer Tomavatars, which began in 2015 with the humanoplancton application, and with Éric Giraudet de Boudemange, in 2017 during a research residency at ESPE Bretagne (École Supérieure du Professorat et de l'Éducation), where he produced the video installation Yvain, mout fus or oublians.

Yvain! is part of a series of works focusing on the figure of the wild man and his contemporary representations, linguistic experiments and pop culture. Éric Giraudet's previous projects have been presented at the Fondation Ricard, Rinomina, Paris and Billytown, La Haye.

Yvain! was presented to the public during two evening performances with Eric Giraudet and Tomavatars:

-- 16 January 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Fondation Ricard in Paris
-- 6 February 2019 at 7.30 p.m. at La Criée centre d’art contemporain à Rennes (contemporary art centre in Rennes).

In December 2018 and February 2019, Éric Giraudet and Tomavatars continued their collaboration as part of a residency at the Collège de la Binquenais with La Criée: they worked with the pupils to develop the second chapter of the game, this time based on Perceval ou Le conte du Graal to Chrétien de Troyes' combined with the world of secondary school pupils.