Latest news with #AvignonFestival
L'Orient-Le Jour
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Arab or not Arab, that is the question!
The Avignon Festival, which ended on Saturday, July 26, showcased the Arabic language, following English and Spanish in previous years. This was a deliberate choice in a French society divided since the start of the war in Gaza. The Palestinian cause ran through the entire festival, with debates, demonstrations and speeches during or before the performances. But while the festival championed an Arab freedom of expression that has been under attack in Europe, there was criticism of the programming's focus on dance over theater, giving little room for the Arabic language itself."We fell in love with dance," said Tiago Rodrigues, the festival's director. This edition opened with a stage adaptation of "One Thousand and One Nights" by Cape Verdean artist Marlene Monteiro Freitas, featuring dance and music. Lebanese...
Al-Ahram Weekly
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Egyptian director Mazen El-Gharabawy participates in Avignon Festival activities - Stage & Street - Arts & Culture
Egyptian director and playwright Mazen El-Gharabawy took part in a roundtable held as part of this year's Avignon Festival (5–26 July), marking the only Egyptian theatre-maker participating in this year's Avignon Off programme. This year's festival, celebrating the Arabic language through theatre, dance, and music, featured several events focused on the performing arts from the Arab region. El-Gharabawy participated in three days of activities, which included a roundtable, speed networking, and a workshop he led with local participants. Speaking to Ahram Online, El-Gharabawy described his connection with the Avignon Festival (Festival d'Avignon)—one of the world's most prestigious and oldest performing arts festivals—as beginning during his participation in the Adelaide Festival in March. 'We met in March, during the Adelaide Festival, a major arts festival held annually in Adelaide, South Australia. There, I presented my theatre activities, starting with the Sharm El-Sheikh International Theatre Festival for Youth (SITFY), through other festivals, and to plays I directed,' El-Gharabawy said, recalling his meeting with Harold David, Co-Chairman of Avignon Off. The centrepiece of El-Gharabawy's theatrical work is SITFY, which he founded and continues to lead. The festival's 10th edition is scheduled for November under the slogan Theatre for Peace and Humanity. Over the years, SITFY has forged collaborations with numerous international theatre institutions and launched sister editions outside Egypt. 'At first, Harold suggested that I present Body, Teeth & Wig at Avignon Off,' El-Gharabawy said, referring to a play he wrote, directed, and designed. However, despite its minimal, portable scenography, the play still required a substantial budget for international touring, making its inclusion in this year's festival unfeasible. El-Gharabawy noted that while the main Avignon In programme covers the cost of participating productions, Avignon Off relies on financial arrangements made by the artists themselves. Body, Teeth & Wig premiered in South Korea in August 2024, and was later staged in India to two sold-out audiences. The play has since been in high demand from international festivals. 'We're already planning for Body, Teeth & Wig to appear at Avignon next year,' he added. The play was previously performed in Egypt for two nights. It will return to the Cairo stage during the ongoing 18th edition of the Egyptian National Theatre Festival (20 July – 8 August), with performances scheduled at Hanager Theatre on 30 and 31 July. Since presenting the play in Avignon wasn't possible this year, Harold David invited El-Gharabawy to participate in a series of events, including the round table and networking sessions. 'The round table was attended by renowned theatre practitioners,' El-Gharabawy said, adding that in addition to himself and Harold David, it featured directors of other major international festivals, including those from Edinburgh and Adelaide. The discussions addressed the challenges of organizing theatre festivals in today's complex global context. El-Gharabawy shared insights on SITFY's programming, its participants, and its Academy Programmes, which offer workshops in both creative and technical aspects of theatre-making, led by Egyptian and international professionals. 'During our discussion, I also spent a big portion of time shedding light on the Egyptian contemporary theatre and in particular the new generation of theatre-makers,' he said. El-Gharabawy also spoke about SITFY Poland, which he launched in Kraków in 2024 with a focus on monodrama; SITFY Georgia, inaugurated in Tbilisi in April and dedicated to duo-dramas; and upcoming plans for similar events in Bodajg (Hungary) and London (UK) by 2026. Looking ahead, El-Gharabawy is working on a 2025–2030 strategic plan that includes launching festivals in Bordeaux (France), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), and Berlin (Germany), as well as expanding international touring of theatrical productions. 'We are also strengthening our connections with Asia, now eyeing China and Sri Lanka, while continuing with South Korea,' he noted during his presentation. El-Gharabawy consistently highlights the importance of his team. 'We are a full-fledged entity run by amazing people. We manage several international festivals. I owe a lot to everyone involved—I couldn't do any of this without their strong support and hard work,' he said, praising his collaborators, including SITFY Managing Director Engy El-Bestawy, international partners, and the many young people engaged in the network's activities. El-Gharabawy's three-day stay at Avignon Off also included networking sessions and a workshop. Always on the move, he has now returned to Egypt for a brief period, redirecting his focus to Body, Teeth & Wig, which will take the stage in Cairo this week. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
LeMonde
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- LeMonde
Avignon Festival 2025: An edition marked by emotion and fragility
The image was sublime: a red satin high heel rising into the night, disappearing into skies as vast as those in Le Soulier de satin ("The Satin Slipper"), by Paul Claudel. There were many similarly powerful emotions during the 2025 edition of the Avignon Festival, the 79 th, which closes on Saturday, July 26. A biblical downpour on the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes. A Brazilian song that wrung the heart, "Sonhos" by Caetano Veloso, to express a father's love for his daughter. The words of Mahmoud Darwish or those of Gisèle Pelicot, both delivered with the same dignity, ringing out in the night, speaking to the endless disasters of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the culture of sexual violence. These emotions experienced under the Avignon stars in southern France emerged from a festival that, overall, leaves a slight feeling of disappointment, especially regarding the dance program, which accounted for around a third of this year's schedule, and the shows presented in the context of the festival's featured language, Arabic. That did not stop the 2025 edition from breaking attendance records, with an unprecedented fill rate exceeding 98%.
Korea Herald
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Korean selected as guest language of 2026 Avignon Festival
Next year's French festival to spotlight performing arts beyond K-culture hype The Avignon Festival, one of the world's most vibrant performing arts festivals, announced Wednesday that it has selected Korean as its official guest language for the 2026 edition. This is the first time an Asian language has been chosen as the guest language. 'The Avignon Festival welcomes an Asian language that is now enjoying worldwide popularity. South Korean culture fascinates the world: K-pop, cinema, series, literature. But beyond this soft power, we want to show the richness of Korean performing arts,' the Avignon Festival said in its announcement on Facebook on Tuesday. Held annually in July in the historic city of Avignon, the festival, founded in 1947, attracts more than 100,000 visitors and showcases performances spanning theater, dance, music and interdisciplinary works. The guest language initiative was introduced by current artistic director Tiago Rodrigues to spotlight the arts and culture of a specific linguistic region. The previous guest languages were English (2023), Spanish (2024) and Arabic (2025). With the guest language selected, a slew of Korean theater works are expected to be invited to the festival's IN (main) program. The Korea Arts Management Service, as the official partner, is working closely with the Avignon Festival on a co-curated program. Whereas the OFF section is open to independent participation, the IN program is curated by the festival. This will mark the first time in 28 years that Korean works are officially invited to the IN program, following the 1998 'Desire of Asia (Desir d'Asie)' project. Rodrigues' decision follows his visit to Korea in October 2023, when he attended the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, organized by KAMS. During the trip, he also performed his work "By Heart," a piece centered on memorizing poetry. "There's something about the power of trying to translate, trying to understand the other, which is extremely important nowadays in theater — but also in society,' Rodrigues said in the 2023 interview with The Korea Herald. 'This is a rare opportunity to share the emotional depth, experimental energy and spirit of Korean performing arts with the world,' said Kim Jang-ho, president of KAMS. 'Through continued exchange between Avignon and SPAF, we aim to strengthen the international ecosystem for Korean performing arts and expand cultural dialogue through the medium of language.'
L'Orient-Le Jour
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- L'Orient-Le Jour
In Avignon, Arabic is spoken chiefly through dance
This year, Arabic is the guest of honor at the Avignon Festival. Sweeping away the xenophobic prejudices fostered by politicians, 10 shows from the Arab world — including six choreographic creations — give dance a place of honor. Through these works, pride, resistance, and sometimes disappointed hopes emerge. A hypnotic choreography, Ethiopian melodies, and gripping actresses come together to expose the violence of an invisible system in Lebanon. Everything was in place to provoke the audience's applause at the first show of the Avignon Festival — the opening event of the Arab program. In "When I Saw the Sea," Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour immediately breaks the fourth wall and shows us what we all need to hear: a call to stop closing our eyes. On stage, the intertwined destinies of three women from sub-Saharan Africa recount the violence, isolation and humiliation inflicted on them by the kafala system, which oppresses migrant women from Africa and South Asia. This marks a turning point for the Lebanese art scene, where previously silenced voices are now speaking up and finally becoming the subjects of their own stories. In this 79th edition, which stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza — also oppressed and silenced — the artistic approach is eloquent and signifies an act of resistance. In the shadow of the performers, singer Lynn Adib and musician Abed Kobeissy create an immersive atmosphere, managing to elevate a powerful message through a unique composition. The evident vulnerability of Rania, Tenei and Zena is accompanied by a powerfully free choreography, breaking free from resignation to embrace a kind of burning boldness. Our bodies are territories in fray In the same spirit of dissent, the solo performance of Belgian-Tunisian choreographer Mohammad Tubakri stands out. His work with its telling title "Every-body knows what tomorrow brings and we all know what happened yesterday," plays on the double meaning of 'every-body' (each body) and 'everybody' (everyone). It expresses the idea that, individually as well as collectively, our bodies carry the remains of the past and the ability to illuminate our future. This legacy, sometimes palpable, sometimes imperceptible, is one Tubakri urges us to question, especially regarding which dance forms Western standards deem legitimate. Like many Arab dancers in Cairo or Marrakesh, Tubakri had to assimilate into so-called 'legitimate' dances, while other practices were not recognized as art. In the mood for crafts? Kinamania will help you create your own bag Thus, he calls upon classical and contemporary dance just as much as breakdance and hip-hop, which he strives to reclaim for their political and subversive potential, and also the popular Maghreb dance called ' shtih.' Guided by the sharp words of Essia Jaibi, his reflective choreographic work sees the body as a field of tension, traversed by power dynamics, highlighting the challenges faced by dancers and choreographers in the MENASA regions (Middle East–North Africa–South Asia), who are often confronted by dominant expectations and perspectives. His dance is a language that communicates with the body, and not everything is meant to be translated. Sometimes elusive, his performance abolishes hierarchies between genres and reveals a raw force, a deep grounding that connects us to the struggle for freedom to dance in one's own language. Rediscovering a lushness in the desert What brings Mohammad Tubakri's performance close to "Magec/The Desert" by Moroccan choreographer Radwan Mriziga is a shared taste for drawing on various repertoires and a mutual desire to deconstruct imperialist narratives. While one works with language, the other works with space. In Mriziga's piece, the desert is not merely a void or a cruel, inert land; it is a place of passage and transformation, crisscrossed by peoples who bear knowledge, rich in poetry and harmonies forged with the environment. From the outset, this vision sweeps away utilitarian concepts while avoiding Orientalism. In this show, heritage is reappropriated and reinvented. In the dark of night, a mystical procession emerges in the Celestins' cloister, gradually enveloped in incense with red ashes. Under the auspices of a great solar disk revealing the vastness of the desert, we witness delicate rituals associated with Magec, the Amazigh sun king of the Canaries. To the rhythmic beat of little golden finger cymbals, six dancers march masked, wearing costumes that evoke the world of animals and indigenous plants, as well as motifs from cave paintings. They take turns personifying the soul of the Moroccan desert: the graceful antelope, the quick snake and the powerful scorpion each present their noble heritage, slowly shaping a collective dialogue. In the dancers' formations, we see both the idea of architectural composition, the devout movement of the sundial and the geometric sacredness of Belgian choreographer Keersmaeker, who trained Mriziga and who is presenting 'Brel' at Avignon. According to Mriziga, it was the weeks spent in the heart of the desert that forged a genuine bodily grammar, enriched by various inspirations such as the writings of Maia Tellit Hawad, a Franco-Tuareg scholar, or those of poet Hawad Mahmoudan. Craftsmanship of Tunisian women artisans Attending "Laaroussa Quartet" by Selma and Sofian Ouissi is like hearing a concert where the instruments are gestures. A female quartet joins in reading unique choreographic scores, where the movements are meticulous, both firm and delicate. Their fingers sculpt, in the spotlight, an infinitely delicate pottery. Behind them, a wide screen pulls us right into the heart of Sejnan, a modest region of Tunisia where a community of 60 women maintains their mastery of the fire art. "Laaroussa" is, above all, a popular artistic project founded by the choreographers to alleviate the extremely harsh economic conditions affecting this community. In tribute, it is both the sensitive crafting of scores and the making of a choreo-documentary that captures the essence of a demiurgic, ancestral, almost sacred gesture. It gives it new vibrancy, greater visibility and a way to keep existing. Deeply committed, the 79th edition of the Avignon Festival paid homage to its history and values, which are rooted in cultural and intercultural dialogue. Still lingering, however, is the question of why dance was given pride of place at this festival. What explains this predominance, and is it not somewhat bittersweet to see the low representation of contemporary Arab dramatic works at such a major international event that has chosen Arabic as its honored language? Dance indeed is one of the most popular forms of artistic expression in the Arab world, just as poetry is, and readings abounded at this festival. Yet, despite arriving later on the Arab arts scene, dramatic production is no less vital. All the more, now — as words more than ever need to be spoken, carried and heard in France and the West — it is legitimate to wonder why this magnificent vehicle that is theater for the Arabic language is underrepresented, and whether the Avignon Festival's offer remains at the level of a manifesto.
