The 80th Avignon Festival has kicked off for three weeks of live performance. It began this Saturday, July 4th, in the papal city, opening with Maldoror, a five-hour play by Julien Gosselin, director of the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, presented in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes. This production, inspired by texts by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño and poems from Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror, blends powerful music, video, and extravagance. "I've always been extremely interested in the fact that beneath beauty, or beneath culture, horror can actually be lurking," Gosselin told AFP. Throughout the city, the Off Festival companies have taken over the 141 available theaters, offering a total of 1,780 shows and 27,000 performances. "There are shows for all tastes," said Festival Director Tiago Rodrigues, describing this edition as a "celebration of creation."
Women in the majority for the first time, and Korean arts in the spotlight
This 80th edition marks a historic first: for the first time, the Festival in features more female than male directors, with 27 women compared to 16 men and 6 collectives. Among the 24 French artists invited are Jeanne Candel, Rebecca Chaillon, and Boris Charmatz, alongside 25 international artists including Brazilians Christiane Jatahy and Carolina Bianchi, Egyptian Ahmed El Attar, and the Flemish Belgian collective TG Stan. Korean is the guest language of this edition, following English, Spanish, and Arabic, and represents approximately 20% of the total program. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Han Kang, present from July 12 to 18, has inspired two performances, including a performance reading featuring Isabelle Huppert and Korean actress Hyeyoung Lee. The festival will conclude with an evening of reflection in the Cour d'honneur "around the questions that art can pose to the world."
A tight budgetary context for the live entertainment sector
The festival's opening is taking place under financial strain. On the eve of the premiere, several professional organizations wrote to Emmanuel Macron To raise concerns about a possible freeze on funding for the second half of the year for 28 performing arts organizations, including numerous opera houses, two Parisian theaters, and four orchestras, the Minister of Culture, Catherine Pégard, assured them that there would be "no cancellation of funding, only postponements," adding that the government "is fighting to prevent this from happening." In this context, a three-day "conference" bringing together artistic teams, institutions, and local authorities is being held alongside the festival, focusing on the economic and distribution conditions of performances—a discussion that will continue in 2027.
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