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French arts festival conquers city
THE annual China-Franco cultural festival “Croisements” will feature about 150 exhibitions, workshops, and performances in 30 Chinese cities. The series of events will start on 29th of April and last two months.
Last year the festival attracted 2.3 million people. This year, the program is split in seven categories — visual arts, young public, theater, music, films, dance and books.
Classics like Moliere’s last play “The Imaginary Invalid” to children’s workshops with contemporary French illustrators and musicians are part of the program. The popular music festival and film festival are also coming back with a well-rounded guest list that will showcase the best of French music and cinema.
“Since its inception, the festival has been the beating heart of France in China — a source of creativity, enjoyment and freedom,” Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, French ambassador to China, said.
“The artists involved in this 11th edition reveal both the beauty and the hardship of the world, as well as its complexity. They help us to better understand the world by questioning it — at times impertinently, but always with a respect for the viewing public.”
This year’s program puts a heavy focus on theatrical performances. In addition to “The Imaginary Invalid,” newer plays like “Closing of Love” by contemporary playwright Pascal Rambert will be introduced to the Chinese audience. Olivier Py, the director of Avignon Theater Festival, is also scheduled to visit Shanghai in May.
French director and comedian Michel Didym will bring his version of the “The Imaginary Invalid,” to the Majestic Theater in Shanghai between May 13 and 15.
The story’s protagonist Argan is a wealthy hypochondriac who plans to marry his daughter Angelique to his doctor friend Diafoirus. Angelique, however, has a lover, and Argan’s second wife only cares about inheriting his property after he dies.
“The work is a type of accomplishment — a culmination of Moliere’s entire dramatic output,” the director said.
“It is a play that affects us all. In Moliere’s time, just as today, hypochondria is both a psychological disease, an internal theater and a representation.”
Platform of communication
For the past 10 years, the festival has also become a platform where Chinese and French artists communicate and collaborate across cultures. This year, Pascal Rambert, the director of the T2G — Theater in Gennevilliers, has directed the Chinese adaptation of “Closing of Love.”
Rambert wrote the play for the 2011 Avignon Festival and has won the 2012 Best French Language play by the National Center for Theater. Featuring the dialogue a man and a woman who discuss their separation, the playwright and director asks the question “who do we love when we love” and provides no easy answer.
“This work is a leap into the deepest part of the characters’ beings: an examination of their most intimate torments. When it is performed by actors of different nationalities and backgrounds, the final performance gives an even more profound meaning to the play,” said Wang Xiang, director of Penghao Theater in Beijing which collaborated with Rambert on the Chinese edition.
Both the French and Chinese versions of the play will be shown in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai in June.
The festival’s events for children have always been among the most popular, and many will be featured this year.
“The Girl, the Devil and the Windmill,” based on “The Girl without Hands” by the Grimm brothers, is directed by Olivier Py, director of the Avignon Festival.
He explained that such shows “bring children to the theater, to see real plays that use everything the medium has to offer.”
“They don’t talk down to children, but make them discover the conventions of theater and its magic. On top of that, children bring their parents with them, parents who wouldn’t necessarily come to the theater if they didn’t have to accompany their children. It makes the audience more diverse.”
The show, directed by Py comes highly recommended by Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei, one of the five cultural ambassadors of this year’s Croisements. Guo is best known for designing the yellow gown that Rihanna wore to the Met Gala last year. Her works have also been shown at the Paris Fashion Week.
“It is a perfect combination of fairy tale and theater performance, a simple stage play which reflects something deep and profound.
“It is by surviving the challenges that we learn the true meaning of happiness. The show will give both kids and adults refreshing inspirations,” Guo said.
The Children’s Workshop and Traveling Exhibition, which will be held in Shanghai in May, invites kids to participate and interact with the artists.
Children’s book illustrator Anne Bertier will tour around five Chinese cities for children’s workshops and an exhibition inspired by two of her books, “Blacks” and “Whites.”
In these two books, she re-invented alphabets, and transformed letters into a source of performance, dreams and games, hoping to uncover the meaning of each letter.
“The purpose is not to teach letters and numbers but to guide children to engage their minds via their imaginations,” she explained.
“It’s a learning process based on observation. It’s an invitation to go on a journey. Through observation, we can re-discover those letters that are more or less hidden. For me, numbers and letters are a type of raw material.”
She will also collaborate with musical performer Gaja Maffezzoli for a workshop where each child can reinvent his or her first name graphically and musically, through visual arts and digital music.
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