Non Verbal Communication Objects

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On Thursday and Friday I went to my usual (it was cancelled last year) mime festival in Périgueux. Due to Covid restrictions making difficult to foreign theater troups to participate (we are only free to move again since the end of June) this year edition is below average, although there are a few good shows. When I arrived in Périgueux on Friday, I noticed a motorcade and the cap and uniform of a préfet. They wear uniforms only for official events and visits of members of the government, so there was a minister in the town. As they were entering in a medieval tower, I thought it was the minister of Culture. I forgot that until I saw again this official cap in the middle of the old temple of the goddess Vesunna, which was protecting the capital city of the Petrucores in the past. I was at about 200m of the group, but with the help of a Canon SX 600 having a stabilized optical lens equivalent to a 450mm I was able to do some good photos but I did not recognized any minister. The temple of Vesunna is in a park wearing the same name, where is built a museum also called Vesunna (they possibly lacked of ideas for names), I was going there to see a show. The first door was blocked by three police officers, two women and a man, I asked them who was important enough to block the entrance of a park half an hour before a show just to visit a monument. A woman told me : "We don't know, we have been told to stay here, we stay here !" The media are speaking of discomfort inside the police, I realized that it was real. -- I recognized the uniform of the préfet, it is why I was asking." "We think it is the minister of Education" said the second policewoman, "but we are not completely sure". -- Alright, thank you." The French minister of education is bald, and there was no bald head on my photos. Going to the main entrance. This one was blocked by three gendarmes... I was told that I would be allowed to enter in 20 mn. Wait a minute, it will give me only 10 mn to reach my place, it is a bit short. A gendarme had pity of me : "You should perhaps try the parking entrance. Follow this way, and turn right three times." Arrived there I saw the motorcade waiting with at its head 4 white police bikes and 4 blue gendarmerie bikes and at the entrance door a lot of military uniforms, among them several high ranking officers. I thought that I would never be authorized to enter, but I tried, and found my way among uniforms with my backpack. Nobody asked me anything, not even the security guard behind the entrance in charge to control the content of bags and backpacks. Finally I was able to get a good seat ! I asked to a member of the festival staff what was this official visit. I was told that it was a state secretary to Tourism. I found that possible. On Friday morning I had seen a very funny sarcastic play featuring two supposed administrators of the EU commission coming to correct some infractions to the EU law done in the festival. In a funny administrative gibberish they explained that minor violations were given one year to be fixed but the major ones had to be fixed immediately, but "It will not be long" (it was the name of the show). They were in a hurry to leave this rat hole and be in Brussels again, but, thanks to a new tool, the NVCOs, non verbal communication objects, they would explain easily what to do. We were shown a lot of NVCOs, from juggling balls to ukuleles (with a terrible Hawaian version of "love me tender") ; all were one use items, because of Covid, dropped in bags after. At a moment, at the end of a mad rock n' roll danced in his grey corporate suit with a red hula hoop, the guy, carried by his enthusiasm, says "I know the populace like if I was part of it !" Very good show, giving some food for thoughts. I looked online on local newspapers from Périgueux to know who was visiting. I found a photo telling "The state secretary to priority education arrived on a bicycle with children to the park of Vesunna". Really ? Then the motorcade and all this official mess was there for me ? Or the bicyles and children on the photo were NVCOs ? On the same paper I read that the funny duo from the EU won the first prize of the jury and the prize of the public. It is rare when the public and the pros of the jury agree. They were really deserving to win. Photos : at the top, two EU administrators in mission ; at the bottom, the préfet of Dordogne giving a show in the center of the temple of Vesunna. The state secretary is the woman dressed in white on the left. Officially, the artists are on the top pictures.