In a world under threat, it is urgent to find the words to combat the evils of the times. This is essentially the message delivered by the director of the Avignon Festival, Tiago Rodrigues, to characterize the guiding principle of the 78th Avignon Festival, which will open a week before the usual dates due to the Olympic Games: from June 29 to July 21.
The 78th edition of the Festival, the second under the direction of Tiago Rodrigues, will be the earliest in its history. Due to the Olympic Games and the need for security forces in the capital, the event has been brought forward by a week and will be held from June 29 to July 21. Its director is maintaining the course outlined last year with a balance between the search for new creative paths and those of the festival’s origins. After English in 2023, the guest language this year will be Spanish, which explains the presence of many artists from the Hispanic world, including Angelica Liddell, well known to the festival public, who will be for the first time in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes with DÄMON/Bergman’s funeral (June 29-July 5) where she invokes the ghost of the Swedish filmmaker. Note that another female artist, Séverine Chavrierinaugurates the festival with Absalon, Absalon! by William Faulkner at La FabricA, which highlights the absolute parity of the programming with around twenty women and as many men at the helm of the different shows.
“We are a festival that seeks the words to talk about a world threatened by war, inequality, extremism and the climate emergency” editorializes Tiago Rodrigues. Paradoxically, but only in appearance, the guest artist speaks the language of the body since he is the choreographer Boris Charmatzdirector of the Tanztheater in Wuppertal (Germany), founded by Pina Bausch, legendary artist of the Avignon event after her creations in the Cour d’Honneur in the early 1980s. Lasting 23 days, this year’s edition has 35 shows and two exhibitions, We never let up / Homage to Alain Crombecque at the Jean Vilar House and Pawnshop of Lorraine of Sagazan et Anouk Maugein at the Lambert Collection.
We Dance there
It is well known that in Avignon we dance… It will not be on the Bridge, but at the Bagatelle stadium where the “accomplice” artist Boris Charmatz is inaugurating a series of three projects, Circlesto which he invites 200 amateurs and professionals for research work on circle dances.
With a duration of two days longer than the previous one, the 2024 edition has around ten fewer shows, which demonstrates, according to Tiago Rodrigues, a desire to add dates to the shows presented to better support the artists, at the same time as offering more places available to the public.
The programming is composed of more than 80% of creations, more than half of the shows are theater projects, the others being divided between choreographic and multidisciplinary shows. Hispanic artists come in force with, in addition to Angelica Liddell, the Argentinian Mariano Pensotti, in charge of the traveling show, A voracious Shadowthe Spanish choreographer The Ribot, the Franco-Catalan companies Great as as well as the Argentinian artist Lola Arias who questions in The days outside life after prison for a group of cisgender women and transgender people. Also on the trip, the Uruguayan Tamara Cubasthe Argentinian Tiziano Cruz, the Uruguayan Gabriel Calderо́n, the young Chilean Malicho Vaca Valenzuelathe Peruvian director Ferrari Chelaas well as the Spanish singer Silvia Perez Cruz which will close the festival with music.
And as Avignon likes to mix old and new comers, we find artists known to festival-goers like Noah Soulier, Gwenaël Morin, Krzysztof Warlikowski or even Marta Górnicka. Also present as an artist, Tiago Rodrigues will lead the Comédie-Française troupe to the heart of the Carrière de Boulbon, where he directs Hecuba, not Hecubabased on the life of Euripides’ heroine. Caroline Guiela Nguyen, Baptiste Amann et Fanny de Chaille are also on display, while Lorraine of Sagazan et Mohamed El Khatib will be in Avignon for the first time.
A 2024 edition which is expected to confirm the relevance of Tiago Rodrigues’ artistic choices in the second programming of his mandate.
The Off with 1617 shows
The Off festival will take place from July 3 to July 21, 2024. He will gather a total of 1316 theater companies offering 1617 shows, taking place in 140 locations. Note that the permanent Avignon companies grouped within Scènes d’Avignon will begin their programming at the same time as that of In, on June 29.
Luis Armengol
For more information: festival-avignon.com
