A Bouquet to Bip: A Tribute to Marcel MarceauPublished in Exile: A Literary Quarterly, Volume 1, Number 3 (Toronto, Exile Editions, 1974), pp. 93-123. Copyright © Janine Zend, all rights reserved, reproduced under license.
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Zend honours Marceau and, by extension, [his mute clown] Bip by finding aspects of them within himself and creating work that is a spiritual collaboration and a testament to their friendship. A Bouquet to Bip is remarkable for being so openly and sincerely woven of their close and affectionate brotherhood. [...]
Although their meeting was relatively brief, Zend’s friendship with Marceau was extraordinarily fruitful in their exchanges of poems and drawings. The ideas and feelings that raised Marceau’s miming to a subtle and ingenious artistic expression resonated with Zend’s own explorations of self and other and the tension between human universality and the divided self.
- Camille Martin, "Robert Zend: Poet without Borders, Part 10. International Affinities: France (Marcel Marceau)," rogueembryo.com, February 26, 2014
Marcel Marceau's response to receiving the "bouquet:"
Once Robert Zend told me that I was a poet of gestures. Once I told him he was a mime with words. Robert Zend is a poet in every moment of his life. |
Enjoy a couple of samples and their sources of inspiration:
"Khalif Harun Al Rashid," pp. 106-107
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"The Maskmaker"
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"The Family Tree of the Alphabet," p. 117
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From The Marcel Marceau Alphabet Book
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