After English in 2023 and Spanish this year, Tiago Rodriguez, the director of the theater festival, has chosen to celebrate a “bridge language” in 2025.
Arabic will be the guest language of the 2025 Avignon Festival, its director Tiago Rodrigues announced on Monday, also introducing the “accomplice” artist, the Cape Verdean choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas, who will be performing the opening creation in the Palais des Papes.
For the 79th edition, Arabic will be the language of honor in the in program. It is a language “of enormous heritage wealth”, “but also a bridge language”said Tiago Rodrigues, during a meeting with the press and the public at the Avignon Festival. This year, the guest language was Spanish (30% of the program), and English last year.
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An “atypical year”
The director also introduced Marlene Monteiro Freitas who will orchestrate the opening show in 2025. “His dance mixes an electrifying relationship with the body and the density of a philosophical thought about our time, he estimated. An artist who “jumps from one discipline to another”he added, citing, in addition to dancing, the “theater, (the) performance, (the) visual arts, cinema”. She will also be “accomplice artist”with several projects shared with other artists. “It’s a double challenge (…), which I embrace with my whole body”said an emotional Marlene Monteiro Freitas.
Regarding the attendance of this 78th edition (June 29-July 21) Pierre Gendronneau, deputy director, announced a “very favorable trend” with “92% in the first week” et “more than 97% in the second week”. “The public was there from the first day”Tiago Rodrigues said happily. This, despite “an atypical year” and the fears of several professionals about attendance. The calendar had in fact been brought forward by a week – due to the organization of the Olympic Games, which require a strong mobilization of law enforcement, and the holding of legislative elections had also raised fears of lower attendance.