“My Turbulents, are my main production ; I have raised them, they are my Tribe”, Alain Bourbonnais, 1979. Alain Bourbonnais launched the Turbulents in 1970, a work of total art. These three-dimensional characters are elaborated from a wooden structure covered with various materials and objects : papier-mâché, laces, fabrics, ornaments, tin cans, bones, wigs, old shoes, bags, ...
The tribe of Turbulents is composed of around forty sculptures-automats animated, either by a spring motor cranked up, or worn like costumes, called "custumes". Marked by the spirit of carnival and especially by the "Rouge-Vin" parties that took place at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Alain Bourbonnais stages his tribe in three short films. Real characters, all of them are given a name : Célestine, Mademoiselle Rose, Tricyclo, Puéril Magic, la Récréation du Petit Roi et Chouchou Recto Verso… They form a very particular tribe with its rites and its customs that we discover in his films Turbulents' Band and Tricyclo..
