ARCHIVES 2016 / Around Sujets à vif

70 films to celebrate the 70^th edition of the Festival
For the second consecutive year, the église des Célestins will turn into an open space of freshness and quiet at the heart of Avignon, where one can admire the works of Adel Abdessemed, pick a book to read, or attend one of the 70 screenings of the audiovisual treasures of the Festival.

The treasures that constitute the memory of the Festival d'Avignon since its creation in 1947 are not well-known, apart from some select pieces. Yet we have at our disposal an impressive collection of films, documentaries, and live recordings. Beyond their historic value, they serve to chronicle this crazy adventure, to help us understand the aesthetic evolutions, the political choices, and the artistic legacy of the first 69 years of one of the most important and longest-running cultural manifestations in the world. Those screenings might also just be a moment of pleasure, an opportunity to discover a show we missed or to relive a key moment. For the 2016 edition, beyond those audiovisual treasures, the Nave will also house new experiences created by artists with strong links to the Festival d'Avignon. Some screenings will be tied to prior editions of the Festival, and will sometimes be introduced by someone who was actually there for the taping. “Outsized” events will also enliven this programme, with for instance a screening of the 24 hours of Jan Fabre's Mount Olympus, or a tribute to Didier-Georges Gabily and films from the vault of the Comédie-Française...