Angela Davis

Conversation avec Elvan Zabunyan

Archive 2023
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
novembernov 19

© Angela Davis - 2019 © KK Ottesen ©

2h

The Festival d'Automne à Paris is producing this event in collaboration with the Théâtre de la Ville

In this unique encounter in Paris, Angela Davis and the contemporary art historian Elvan Zabunyan pursue a dialogue they began in 2020. In front of a wider audience this time round, they will continue to reflect upon the intersection between current developments in the arts and global politics.

In an interview dating back to the summer of 2020, Angela Davis responded to Elvan Zabunyan by stressing "the central place of art in the development of peoples' struggles for democracy, justice, freedom and equality". She added: "it is often assumed that the most important figures in a movement are the theorists, orators, and organizers. The assumption is that is they who take on the central task of of building movements and that art simply helps to make us more receptive to these ideas… I think that it is precisely because art allows us to become aware of the bonds that bring us together and to collectively experience possibilities for the future, that it plays such a profound role in the development of radical social movements." For Angela Davis, the arts, in whatever form they may take, shed light on the future. These words resonate with what the Festival d'Automne has always stood for since its creation, and its desire to put in place new cultural paths.

See also

Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry – le Crédac
septembersept 21 - december – dec 21

Correspondances. Lire Angela Davis, Audre Lorde et Toni Morrison
Visual arts
Free

In November 2023, Angela Davis was guest at the Festival d'Automne for a conversation with Elvan Zabunyan about the meeting point between the arts and activism. A year later, the Crédac contemporary art centre now presents a group exhibition bringing together archive material by Angela Davis, Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison.

In the same place

Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
septembersept 13 – 22

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Radouan Mriziga / Rosas, A7LA5
Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione

Dance

In collaboration with the choreographer and dancer Radouan Mriziga, the challenge taken up by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is to make Vivaldi's Four Seasons heard, using the tools of dance to hone the way we listen to this baroque masterpiece. Under the auspices of abstraction, the resulting alliance reconnects with the imaginary ecological world that is conjured up by this famous concerto.
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
septembersept 23 – 28

Rabih Mroué
Who’s Afraid of Representation?

Theatre Portrait

We find ourselves in the company of major figures of European Body Art (Joseph Beuys, Orlan, Marina Abramović, to name a few) via their accounts of exhibitions and public scarifications dating back to the 1970s. In parallel with this runs the true story of a killing spree carried out by a Lebanese office at his workplace, and the fluctuating motivations for his acts.
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
octoberoct 3 – 5
Maison des Arts de Créteil
novembernov 6 – 7

Lola Arias
Los días afuera

Theatre
Buy tickets

At the crossroads between musical and documentary, Lola Arias brings us a choral composition in which six female former inmates talk about their lives during and after incarceration. Their six intertwining destinies raise questions about the various forms of violence present in contemporary society, whilst exploring the margins of fiction and reality at the same time.
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
novembernov 5 – 16

Robert Wilson
PESSOA – Since I've been me

Theatre

The hero of this new work by Robert Wilson is Fernando Pessoa. And a paradoxical hero at that. The Portuguese poet spent his life 'multiplying himself', inventing heteronyms, or fictitious authors, to whom he attributed works he himself wrote. He even went as far as to invent relationships, either amicable ones or from master to disciple, between his different avatars.
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt
novembernov 19 – 23

Jan Martens
VOICE NOISE

Dance
Buy tickets

In this breakthrough piece for Jan Martens, VOICE NOISE brings together six dancers to shape a soundscape comprising some of the great female performers and composers of our time. In his own pop-inspired and precise way, the choreographer questions a very contemporary story, and in doing so raises the question of how some of these voices were silenced.