This week, FRANCE 24’s Valérie Fayolle meets Meryl. The singer and rapper from Martinique takes us to the Elysée Montmartre concert hall, where she first performed in Paris. She chats about her latest album, Caviar I and its many influences. Then it's off to Agnès Baillon's Paris studio where we will see the sculptor’s papier-mâché figures including dancers and swimmers. Then last but not least, Paris des Arts brings you to 88 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, where we take a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the French presidential palace represented at the Maison Elysée.
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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