From Poland to Chile, four artists who make the world echo

Ukraine, Venezuela, Uruguay, Guadeloupe… The Avignon Festival is a window on the world, as evidenced by the shows by artists from diverse backgrounds. And always very committed.

Marta Górnicka with “Mothers — A Song for Wartime”

Bring together, unite voices, to better make the ills of our world heard. This is the mission that the Polish Marta Górnicka has given herself. In Avignon, the 49-year-old artist presents Mothers — A Song for Wartime, choral performance in which twenty-one Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish women sing the pain of a never-ending Russia-Ukraine war. Born into a family of musicians, Marta Górnicka has always brought singing to the stage. And women: as soon as she left the Warsaw Theatre Academy and Music Conservatory, the artist surrounded herself with female performers, who are too rare in theatres. “I wanted to create pieces where they could take over the stage and express themselves.” War and divisions form the subjects that run through his work. Marta Górnicka wants to bring together and confront. “The choir is a powerful, political medium. People who would never have met before, who consider each other enemies, coexist in my shows. » Thus, activists from the left, the right, Arabs, Jews, refugees, but also women, the elderly, men, the disabled, children… inhabit European stages by the dozen. Because Marta Górnicka plays everywhere. She knows France by heart. Avignon often welcomed her. Last year, the artist came to give a reading to announce her show. Here it is performed a year later. Promise kept. — K.O.

1 hour. From July 9 to 11 at 10 p.m. Court of honor of the Palais des Papes.

Malicho Vaca Valenzuela with “Reminiscence”

Last year, Tiago Rodrigues had secretly invited him to Avignon to introduce him to the festival. Before programming in 2024 Reminiscence, an autobiographical show combining theater and digital. Malicho Vaca Valenzuela tells the story of his neighborhood in Santiago de Chile, which has always been affected by political struggles. At 36, the Chilean artist — who looks 20! — already has a rich career behind him. At 8 years old, he played his first role in a television series. Then came cinema, and theater which he practiced intensely during his studies at the University of Santiago de Chile, “the most prestigious in the country”. There, in 2013, he won the prize for best director at a renowned festival. “That’s when I really started my career as a director,” he says, all smiles. After six years of busy studies, Malicho left the university to devote himself to his passion. And to put into practice the projects that were swarming in his mind. Sexual diversity, gender, Latin American memory… so many themes that permeate his theatre. Participating in the Avignon festival? A source of pride for the artist. “This is the third time since the festival was created that a Chilean company has been programmed. I really want to share Reminiscence with the French public. » And we, to discover it on stage… — K.O.

55 min. From July 17 to 20 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., July 21 at 11 a.m. Mistral High School Gymnasium.

Tamara Cubas with “Sea of ​​Silence”

The festival named it Sea of Silence. However, the Uruguayan Tamara Cubas, 51, has not yet given a name to the performance she will create in Avignon! “So you can’t imagine anything…” she jokes. In reality, the title on the programs refers to a cycle of pieces devoted to female migrations, a theme dear to the artist. Her work? ” objects ” more than just shows, based on bodies, on the way they act in space and our societies. A conceptual approach to art, and at the same time concrete, that the Uruguayan has continually developed. A graduate of the Fine Arts School of Montevideo, she flew to the Netherlands to complete a master’s degree in arts before returning to her native country to study contemporary dance. Since then, Tamara Cubas
crisscrosses the United States, Europe — including France —, South America… “Everyone should travel! To broaden their perspectives, their panorama. We are too locked in our certainties, our daily problems…” The stage objects she designs combine several disciplines, forming mystical rituals… “The seven performers that I brought together for Avignon come from the Muslim world, Africa and South America. They will be connected to their native culture, they will dialogue, sing, dance their vision of the world. » A sea of ​​salt will cover the ground. The beginning of an enchantment? — K.O.

1:30 a.m. From July 4 to 9 at 7 p.m. (closed on the 7th). Théâtre Benoît-XII.

Yinka Esi Graves avec “The Disappearing Act.”

Yinka Esi Graves grew up in Nicaragua, Guadeloupe and England before choosing Spain as her anchor point. The reason? A love of flamenco, which she links to the culture brought by enslaved Africans to Andalusia: “Something in flamenco refers to African dances. Seville was the port of entry from Africa to Europe, a lot of cultural exchanges took place there and living there made me aware of the reality of colonialism.” In The Disappearing Act., the one whose father is Jamaican and whose mother is Ghanaian questions a 40-year-old ” disappearance “ generalized of Afro-descendants. She points it out from historical accounts to skin lightening or hair straightening practices. And she also remembers Miss Lala, from the Fernando circus, a mixed-race acrobat painted by Degas with her head tilted back, whose face is curiously missing from the painting. Accompanied on stage by Raúl Cantizano on guitar, Remi Graves on drums and Rosa de Algeciras on vocals, she stamps her feet on the ground and spreads her arms vigorously. Little by little, she fades into the darkness and represents the erasure of black bodies: “This “disappearance number”, we, people of Afro-descendants, often replay it. Evoking this invisibility in another register allows me to free myself and regain power. » The view on flamenco is changed. — B.M.

1 hour. From July 18 to 21 at 10 p.m. Courtyard of Saint-Joseph high school.