Puppeteer and olfactory artist, this is how Clémence Millet, alias Miss Bouillon, defines herself, who has been at TOPIC these days doing a Creation Residency. “It seems unbelievable, but when I was little puppets scared me until one day, when I was 19 or so, I went to a festival to see a string puppet show and I was so impressed that I spent a few hours with my mind “On what he had seen and without being able to think of anything else.”

Producer of essential oils and floral waters, collector of aromatic and medicinal plants, Clémence also distills essences that she uses for her olfactory stagings. Create shows and workshops around smells. “My artistic practice is concentrated around two axes: contemporary puppets and olfactory art, two crossroads that intertwine and shape each other,” this artist tells us.

One thing led to another, training in puppetry with different companies, which allowed him to have complementary and varied approaches such as the fundamentals of manipulation with the Alinéa Company; the bunraku technique with the Coatimundi Company; improvisation work with the Tara theater; the black theater technique with the Le clan des songes Company and the construction of hybrid puppets in foam and fabric with Natacha Belova.

In this Creation Residency Miss Bouillon, as she is known artistically, is preparing the dramaturgy of ‘Narinelli’, a small format show she has had since 2017, which she wanted to “enlarge”, delving deeper into the character. At TOPIC he is also working on olfactory diffusion, in addition to those nine scenes that he has completed for the work.

Before arriving in Tolosa he has gone through five other Creation Residences, all of them in France, and from here he will return to another one with the same characteristics, but in the autumn. The premiere of this new version of ‘Narinelli’ will take place in October at the University of Toulouse, within the framework of a colloquium on perfumes. In November he will attend Marionnettissimo, the local puppet festival, where he will show a small part as a launching platform and next year, he will visit us to offer it at the TOPIC.