Festival d'Avignon: the ANR invites you to the Rencontres Recherche et Création and the Forum Intelligences culturelles

21 June 2024

The Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) and the Festival d'Avignon are organising the 11th Rencontres Recherche et Création on 8 and 9 July 2024 on the theme of "History(s) in motion".

For two days, scientists and artists from the Festival will be sharing their knowledge and experience, confronting their points of view and exchanging ideas with the public. These are international, interdisciplinary encounters, combining scientific disciplines and a wide range of performing arts. This event will be followed by the "Cultural Intelligences" Forum, organised on 10 July with Thalie Santé and the Office national de diffusion artistique (ONDA), bringing together cultural professionals and researchers to share their thoughts on transformations in the creative ecosystem. Two highlights to be experienced at the heart of the Festival d'Avignon and followed live on the ANR YouTube channel.

At the heart of the Cloître Saint-Louis, the Rencontres Recherche et Création (Research and Creation Encounters) have, for over 10 years, brought together the thinking behind the Festival's works with the work of renowned researchers. This year's Rencontres Recherche et Création will feature four Festival artists and around twenty scientists in four themed sessions exploring 'History(ies) in Motion':

  • Le passé recomposé - Absalon, Absalon! by Séverine Chavrier based on the work by William Faulkner : History, anthropology and philosophy shed light on the mechanisms of segregation, the social and political dimensions that underpinned slavery, the conditions for recognition of civil rights, and access to reparation and justice. Work in the field of genetic anthropology shows that the human species shares the same genetic heritage regardless of its geographical origin.
  • Waiting for justice - Hecuba, not Hecuba, by Tiago Rodrigues based on the play by Euripides : the tragic violence of ancient theatre raises questions about our understanding of the reality of conflict. How can justice be restored after the torments of war, when anger is still alive and memories and narratives clash?
  • Prendre corps - Liberté Cathédrale by Boris Charmatz : By showing that gesture is inseparable from speech and the expression of emotions, and that the spatial and temporal precision of movement is constructed through the perception of the body, research into the history of sensibility and emotion, cognitive neuroscience and linguistics is opening up new perspectives for analysing the dancing body.
  • It could have been different - Lieux Communs by Baptiste Amann : Questioning representation in the political or judicial arena, in the media, in fiction or on theatre stages, means questioning the conditions for expressing identities, conflicts, the search for common interests, or other states of the world.

Organised as part of the Festival d'Avignon's Café des idées, Rencontres Recherche et Création has already featured more than 77 artists and 220 researchers of 20 different nationalities. This unique event was born out of an unprecedented partnership between the ANR and the Festival d'Avignon in 2014.

" I'm delighted to be taking part in the 11th Rencontres Recherche et Création, where artistic creation, the performing arts and research will once again be coming together to engage in free dialogue and mutually enrich each other! This historic partnership grows stronger every year, arousing ever greater curiosity among festival-goers and enthusiasm among the artists and scientists involved. These days are an essential opportunity to open up to the world through the multi-disciplinary scientific horizons and artistic forms that come together. The Rencontres Recherche et Création are an integral part of the Festival's research laboratory for the future, making them an essential part of the Festival d'Avignon.says Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Festival d'Avignon.

" The partnership between the Agence nationale de la recherche and the Festival d'Avignon is essential, because while our role is to support research and the production of knowledge in all areas of science, it is also to encourage the sharing of this knowledge with as many people as possible. The Festival is a unique venue for facilitating exchanges between artists, cultural professionals, scientists and the general public. The various editions of Rencontres Recherche et Création have shown just how much this dialogue meets expectations and how much it is a source of fundamental questions for research. The desire to facilitate access to what is complex is fully in line with the primary concerns of the scientific approach. By bringing together the voices of works of art and research, the meetings also seek to understand the world in which we live, in all its torments and hopes. This thirst for exploration and sharing is one of the many things that artists and scientists have in common. "Thierry Damerval, Chairman and CEO of the French National Research Agency (ANR).

" Rencontres Recherche et Création explores the present and current affairs in a new way, bringing together the thinking behind works of art and scientific research. Inspired by the works presented at the Festival, the programme compares historical periods, civilisations, imaginary worlds and social organisations. The diversity of scientific disciplines is matched by the diversity of performing arts forms. This collective, interdisciplinary dynamic shows that knowledge is not separate and that creativity, like culture, contributes to human development and the development of societies. This 11th edition will be an opportunity to explore the conditions of our common humanity, the exercise of justice and to question the representations of the world. "Catherine COURTET, head of research in the human and social sciences department of the French National Research Agency (ANR).


The "Cultural Intelligences" Forum, 10 July from 2.30 to 5.30 p.m.

The Rencontres Recherche et Création will be followed by the "Cultural Intelligences" Forum on Wednesday 10 July from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. This 4th event will provide an opportunity for cultural professionals and scientists to share their thoughts on the cultural intelligences that contribute to human development and the development of societies.

With the participation of : Patrick Boucheron, Cathy Bouvard, Fabienne Chognard, Thierry Damerval, Isabelle Ecckhout, Ghislain Gauthier, Pierre Gendronneau, Emmanuelle Gourvitch, Patrick Haggard, Paulin Ismard, Tiphaine Karsenti, Chloé Langeard, Olivier Loubes, Serge Rangoni, François Saint-Bonnet, Georges Vigarello...

Practical information and booking

  • These two events, free of charge on reservationwill take place over 3 days at the Cloître Saint-Louis in Avignon.

    Festival d'Avignon
    Cloister of Saint-Louis
    20, rue du Portail Boquier
    84000 Avignon

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Mis à jour le 21 June 2024