Festival Croisements returns
The much anticipated annual Sino-French cultural feast, Festival Croisements, is set to kick off on April 24, according to a press conference held by the event’s organizers on Thursday in Beijing.
The two-month festival will bring a total of 68 events such as stage plays, dance performances and films to 30 cities across the country. With cross-cultural cooperation a major theme, a number of French performances will also be localized into Chinese, while French and Chinese artists will work together to create brand new artistic experiences for Chinese art lovers.
For instance, stage play The True Story of Ah Q, based on the famous Chinese litterateur Lu Xun (1881-1936)’s novel of the same name, will be directed by celebrated French director Michel Didym.
The show combines both traditional and contemporary forms of artistic expression and techniques, such as shadow puppets and multimedia, and will be staged in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing.
Additionally, French musician Serge Teyssot-Gay will team with Chinese musician Xie Yugang for a tour and the creation of a cross-cultural album afterwards.
To show how he was inspired by the history of the ancient Silk Road, French artist Laurent Laffargue has chosen to use Chinese dancers to present his dance performance Rendezvous with the Moon.
“As always, we remain faithful to our original aim to encourage and develop encounters between the artist and cultural institutions of our two countries,” said Robert Lacombe, director of the French Institute of China, at the Thursday conference.
As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the French social revolution of 1968, which played an essential role in French cultural and political history, films that explore this revolutionary time will be screened at various venues, including Jean-Luc Godard’s internationally renowned film The Chinese.
The exhibition Art is You!, to be shown in Beijing, will also introduce visitors to the utopian movement that helped liberate the speech and imaginations of the French people.
In addition, issues such as immigration and the pain of exile will also be explored to reflect today’s social issues.
Three well-known Chinese cultural celebrities, writer Liu Zhenyun, composer Tan Dun and actress Zhang Yuqi have been selected to act as this year’s Goodwill Ambassadors.