Cecilia Bengolea / François Chaignaud

Following on from t u m u l u s, François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain continue their exploration of Renaissance funeral chants, putting the audience at the very heart of the experience. This proximity means that the slightest breath, drop of sweat, or movement become sensory matter in which the celestial and the earthly intertwine.

The Festival d'Automne continues, for the third year in a row, its partnership with the Louvre Museum. Together, they have been building up a collection of new contemporary performances dedicated to the museum and its works. On the occasion of the 'Figures du fou. Du Moyen âge aux romantiques' exhibition, which explores the subversive value of the foolish or the nonsensical in medieval society, the dancer and choreographer François Chaignaud brings us Petites joueuses. In this piece, an immersive and uninterrupted journey through the medieval Louvre, mutant and resonant creatures take over its fortifications, giving rise to a somewhat disturbing carnival.

In what ways does the unstoppable development of artificial intelligence (AI) permeate our lives and behaviour? Kurō Tanino, playwright of the poetry of our everyday lives and the imperceptible movements of the psyche, brings to the stage a world in which technology reveals the depths of our unconscious.

The choreographer Katerina Andreou draws upon the constant confusion and noise of the world as the driving force in this her first group piece. Playfulness, absurdity, fiction and poetry arise from within this mental and emotional state. 

Taking his inspiration from traditional Japanese forms, playwright and director Satoko Ichihara brings us a puppet theatre for today's world. It is a troubled one, in which the story revolves around the ambiguous nature of the dolls. In this modern tale, loneliness, suffering and sexuality are the driving forces behind these puppets the various weaknesses of which makes them ever more human.

By reconstituting four perfectly extraordinary, but very real, stories Marcus Lindeen and Marianne Ségol raise questions about the notion of memory. Their unique form of theatre, in which spoken words of a personal nature are exchanged and feed off each other, is scrupulously crafted and philosophical in equal measure. 

There are no puppets in this large-scale new work by puppeteer Alice Laloy. Instead, we encounter humans which have been transformed into avatars and then thrown into a ring In order to compete in increasingly violent matches. This mise en abyme, at the frontier between wrestling-inspired ritual and video game scenario, invites us to question the limits of a society which simply follows orders.