“The Mignons are happy to be in Lyon”, Philippe Katerine sponsor of the Festival of Lights 2023

Philippe Katerine is the godfather of the 2023 edition of the Festival of Lights. The singer-songwriter is also a visual artist. In his youth, he attended art school. It was during confinement that he created Monsieur Rose, a character as endearing as he is imposing.

During confinement, at the time of the Covid pandemic, Philippe Katerine devoted a large part of his time to his children. It was at this time, somewhat by chance, that he invented characters while playing with modeling clay. The Mignons were born. With a typically Katerinian artistic movement: cuteness.

Today, there are around ten small and huge men sitting on the grass of the Tête d’Or park staring at us, hands outstretched, a marker of social distancing in the time of confinement. The way for these guys to express their frustration at not being able to go out. For the celebration, they were renamed “the Rose Family.”

The Mignons happy to be presented in Lyon

“As soon as they are out, the members of the Rose family are happy! Because otherwise, they are in a shed most of the time, where there are no windows. It’s not fun for them.

They are happy to be able to travel, and it is a great honor for them and for me.

This character was born from paranoia, from a cry. He wants to communicate. Its shapes are pleasant, we want to touch it, its shapes are generous and comfortable, it brings a smile to the people it meets.”

The Mignons in the chiaroscuro of the party

“The Mignons lend themselves well to an event like the Festival of Lights. Because the idea of ​​this festival, if I understood correctly, is to walk in numbers in the dark while being lit almost exclusively by the works that are on display. There’s something quite extraordinary about this process. It’s like when you go to the cinema, it’s the screen that illuminates the audience in the room. It’s upsetting. There too, there is an emotion and this configuration corresponds entirely to the framework for exposing this type of characters.

The soundtrack brings the sound back, we love it!

“I put the sound back on, I love it is performed by the Radio France philharmonic orchestra. Grandiose, lyrical, dynamic. These songs that I have selected most of the time express wounds, things badly experienced . It’s often this dichotomy that holds me back. And when we turn off the sound, do we turn off the lights? Maybe, I don’t know.”

“These scars that you can see on all the men, it speaks about me. I had heart surgery when I was little. Normally I shouldn’t be alive, I have a scar on my chest right there. But generally speaking, everyone has a wound in their heart, everyone’s little sorrow…”