these cultural events not to be missed in France

Be careful, the major exhibitions of the fall will close soon! Before browsing the list of events that we have spotted for you in January, go and see, in the first weeks of the month, the skirmishes of Harriet Backer and Gustave Caillebotte at the Musée d’Orsay, James Cameron at the Cinémathèque, “Surrealism” at the Center Pompidou, or Myriam Mihindou at the Palais de Tokyo.

Finally up to date? So, here we go for our grand tour of France of festivalsconferences, film concerts, spectacles et performances from the start of the year!

At the Seydoux-Pathé foundation, Antiquity at the top of the bill

Cleopatra, Spartacus, Ben-Hur… These mythical figures of Antiquity are also movie stars ! In Paris, the Seydoux-Pathé foundation offers a generous take on the question, bringing together 200 elements of sets, posters, props and costumes, from the origin of cinema to the present day. All are taken from the behind the scenes of feature films taking Antiquity as their subject, and above all as the starting point of a unbridled imagination. Where we come across, among others, Asterix and Obelix, Brigitte Bardot, a tank, numerous costumes…

In Marseille, the circus in the spotlight

Clowns, acrobats and other acrobats are currently in the spotlight at the Mucemwhich hosts a fascinating exhibition of the work of director Macha Makeïeff. At the same time, January 9 to February 9the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region is hosting the sixth edition of the International Biennial of Circus Arts. HAS Marseillebut also to Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Istres, Draguignan or even Vitrollesthe most daring companies in the world contemporary circus (Les 7 Doigts de la main, Cirque Le Roux, etc.) take over various locations, offering the public the opportunity to discover the 1001 facets of an art in movement. Cannon!

At the Grenoble museum, concerts… at lunchtime!

Why wait until the evening to attend a concert? What if we escaped, for a lunch break, during a “Midi en musique” at the Grenoble museum ? Appointments are made on Thursdays, January 9 and 23 at 12:30 p.m., for two concerts highlighting young musical creation with cellist Pauline Boudon et the pianist Martin Jaspard (9th), and two quartets by Mozart and Brahms (23rd). A very nice program.

At the Palais de Tokyo, Sharon Eyal rehearses in public

Contemporary dance lovers, mark your calendars! From January, the Tokyo Palace invite the famous Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal and the musician Gai Behar to invent new performance formats. This month, for example, we will be able to attend rehearsals for their next show within an exhibition space transformed into a dance studio (January 15 at 5:30 p.m. and January 16 at 6 p.m.), but also at restitutions of their residence specially designed for the public (January 17 at 7 p.m. and January 18 at 5 p.m.). An interesting invitation behind the scenes of dance and its creative processes.

At the Louvre-Lens, a promising conference

Open until January 20, the very beautiful and sensitive exhibition “Exiles. Artists’ views” at the Louvre-Lens is accompanied by a whole agenda of events, including, soon, a conference around the “kitchen of exile”scheduled for Saturday January 11 at 2 p.m. On the stage of the museum auditorium, the subject specialist Stephanie Schwartzbrod will return to the writing of his eponymous book (The Kitchen of Exile, ed. Actes Sud, 2019), for which she brought together 24 stories of men and women who have experienced uprooting, and dozens of recipes from their countries of origin.

At the Musée d’Orsay, a lovely film concert for children

Did you know? The very first feature-length documentary in history is none other than Nanouk the Eskimo (1922) by Robert Flaherty, a film of just under 1 hour 20 minutes devoted to the daily life of a hunter and his family in the great Canadian north. Saturday January 18 at 3 p.m.the Musée d’Orsay offers to (re)discover this capital work in the history of cinema, during a cinema-concert set to music by the composer Anne Paceo. Drums, harp, piano, keyboards and voices will bring a new and lively texture to the film, to delight children aged 6 and over.

At the Orangerie Museum, dance by Monet

Can we imagine a more beautiful setting than the immense canvases of Water lilies of Monet? Good news: the Orangery museum continues its “Dance in the Water Lilies” program, and welcomes the January 20 next the Swiss dancer and choreographer Fabrice Mazliah for a creation on site, Duet – an elegant duo work with his sidekick Cyril Baldy. Two performances are planned, at 7 p.m. then 8:30 p.m.

Throughout France, Reading Nights

Their names are Camille Laurens, Pierre Lemaitre, Vanessa Springora and Lola Lafon, and they are all releasing their new novel in January. Because after the literary start of September, comes that of the beginning of the year! Enough to make us want to stay warm with a book… Or to participate in the 9^e edition of Reading Nights. Throughout France, libraries, museums, educational establishmentsbookstores and cultural centers offer many free activities, readings, conferences, meetingsperformances or workshops, which will keep the public awake from January 23 to 26. A map listing thousands of events is available online.

In Angoulême, the traditional comics festival

This Christmas again, there were many of them at the foot of the tree: from Riad Sattouf to Emil Ferris, the comics are more than ever on the rise! The proof is with the 52^e edition of the festival dedicated to them in Angoulême, planned this year from January 30 to February 2. With no less than eight exhibitionsdedicated to the authors Posy Simmonds and Julie Birmant, but also to the theme of adapting stories, to the series by Makoto Yukimura Vinland Saga or even to the hero Superman. On Thursday evening, for the opening of the festival, a evening of cartoon concerts will take over the La Nef performance hall… This will thus prove the vitality of an art which is not confined to a small designed box!

In Le Havre, the “Metamorphoses” in question

A summer in Le Havre is one of the contemporary art events which can be proud of having shaken up the landscape of a city. Every winter, for three editions now, a day is devoted to different exchanges around these artistic and urban metamorphosesahead of the opening of the festival next spring. THE January 30so go to Fitzthe café of the national Volcano scene, to attend the discussions guests like Emmanuel Tibloux, director of the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, Fiona Meadows, architect and curator, or Guillaume Aubry, artist and architect, around the evolution of the city. The entrance is free and free.