Luxembourg’s creative talent is making its presence felt on the French Riviera this summer, in the fields of photography, visual arts and performing arts. From Arles to Avignon, via Marseille, we take a look back at an extremely rich programme featuring Luxembourg artists!
After being a regular visitor to Les Rencontres d’Arles, Michel Medinger has been awarded the Luxembourg Photography Award 2024 by Lët’z Arles, which is devoting an exhibition to him curated by Sylvie Meunier at Les Rencontres d’Arles from 1 July to 29 September 2024, at the Chapelle de la Charité.
Comprising some thirty original photographs and around a dozen prints reproduced on light boxes, as well as numerous objects displayed in a monumental cabinet of curiosities, the exhibition Michel Medinger – L’ordre des choses resonates with the baroque architecture of the Chapelle de la Charité.
The exhibition, which opened on 3 July in the presence of Eric Thill, Minister for Culture; H.R.H. the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg; H.E. Mr Marc Ungeheuer, Ambassador of Luxembourg to France; Florence Reckinger-Taddeï, President of Lët’z Arles; Gilles Zeimet, Director of the CNA; Cécilia Zunt-Radot, Director of Lët’z Arles; Patrick de Carolis, Mayor of Arles; Christoph Wiesner, Director of Les Rencontres d’Arles and Isabelle Medinger, the artist’s daughter.
In Avignon, the international press and professionals will also have the opportunity to discover the 8 Luxembourg productions and co-productions that will be shown at the Festivals IN and OFF Avignon. A breakfast with artists and venue managers hosting Luxembourg productions was organised on Thursday 4 May in the presence of Eric Thill, Minister for Culture. It was an opportunity to talk to the artists about the challenges of the Festival OFF d’Avignon and to find out about the productions being presented there until 21 July.
Marion Rothhaar and Jennifer Gohier put sports at the heart of creation in this Olympic year. Jennifer Gohier presents her show for young audiences, GO! at Train Bleu, which places the moral path of the martial arts and respect for one’s opponent at the heart of this creation. At La Manufacture, Corps au bout de monde retraces the experience of top-level sports by a former West German gymnast, Marion Rothhaar, now a member of the Luxembourg multi-disciplinary collective Maskénada. “It’s my first time in Avignon and I had no idea what the atmosphere would be like: the competition but also the complicity between the cultural players, it’s enormous! And with so many people interested in different kinds of theatre, it’s great to see“, says Marion Rothhaar.
At l’Atelier, in partnership with Les Hivernales as part of the “On (y) danse aussi l’été!” festival, the production MEGASTRUCTURE presents a performative dance duo. Led by cross-border choreographers Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson, they say they are “[…] very happy to be experiencing this special moment, to have the chance to perform a series and to receive such a warm welcome from the audience. The venue is getting fuller and fuller, with a full house last night! We’re continuing to work on our communications and hope to have some great spin-offs!”
A reading organised by Le Gueuloir as part of the Souffle d’Avignon festival brought together 3 Luxembourg authors in the Cloître Benoît XII of the Palais des Papes, which was sold out. Jean Boillot gave voice to texts by Aude-Laurence Biver, Ian De Toffoli and Tullio Forgiarini. “Le Gueuloir is a house that welcomes the diversity of contemporary theatrical writing, its authors and also its voices, those who read our texts. Being here at the Souffle d’Avignon, in this prestigious venue that is the Palais des Papes, has proved to us that being a playwright means being “shouted at, to write better”.
Last but not least, the Mediterranean will be the setting for three Luxembourg artists in the city of Marseille: MUCEM, with a site-specific light installation by Brognon Rollin entitled “Le Phare”, followed by Marie Capesius in a collective exhibition entitled “Paradis Naturiste”, on view until 9 December, and Triangle-Astéride, with “Le prix du ticket”, an exhibition by Aline Bouvy which has been extended until 1 September.
For the 41st Marché de la Poésie, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg showcased the richness of Luxembourg’s poetic creativity. The “Poésies du Luxembourg” stand, shared with Redfoxpress, was a meeting place for poets, publishers, professionals and enthusiastic audiences from all walks of life, who were able to discover the voices of Luxembourg, including Serge Basso de March, Jean Portante, Lambert Schlechter, Alexandra Shahrezaie, Florent Toniello, Hélène Tyrtoff and Luce van den Bossche.
On Thursday 20 June, Serge Basso de March, Jean Portante, Lambert Schlechter, Florent Toniello, Hélène Tyrtoff and Luce van den Bossche took part in the event ‘Luxembourg poetry: a remarkable individuality’ at the Espace Andrée Chedid in collaboration with the PEN Club français. This reading and get-together, moderated by Carole Carcillo Mesrobian, President of the PEN Club français, highlighted the diversity of facets and voices within Luxembourg’s poetic landscape. The event was preceded by a convivial reception over drinks.
In conjunction with the Marché de la Poésie, Kultur | lx organised a poetry breakfast on Friday 21 June, prior to the opening of the market, to stimulate exchanges and develop future cooperation between poets, publishers, literary magazines and programmers.
Throughout the Marché de la Poésie, Luxembourg poets were present to sign their new publications. On Saturday 22 June, La Traductière, Revue internationale de poésie et arts visuels organised a reading with several authors and poets, including Jean Portante, to present its latest issue.
The Marché de la Poésie is the largest gathering of authors and publishers of poetry in France, and remains a key event for promoting and circulating Luxembourg authors and their works beyond the country’s borders.
This year 8 productions and co-productions from Luxembourg will be staged at the Avignon IN and OFF Festivals. A reading organised by Le Gueuloir, bringing together 3 playwrights from Luxembourg, will also be hosted as part of Souffle d’Avignon.
Luxembourg Selection at Avignon
In a year with the Olympics, two of the selected productions revolve around sport. Corps au bout de monde at the Manufacture tells the story of Marion Rothhaar, a retired elite gymnast from the former West Germany, now a member of Maskénada, a multidisciplinary collective from Luxembourg. The play will run every day from 4 to 21 July (except 9, 10, 16 and 17 July) at 4.45 p.m.
At the Théâtre du Train bleu, the morals of martial arts and respect for one’s opponent are explored in GO !, a play for young audiences performed by the cross-border company Artezia/Corps in Situ, running from 3 to 21 July (except 8 and 15 July) at 7 p.m.
At the Atelier, in partnership with Hivernales as part of the On (y) danse aussi l’été! Festival (Let’s dance (here) in summer too!), MEGASTRUCTURE is a dance performance created by Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson, an award-winning cross-border duo of choreographers listed by the Aerowaves network as one of the top 20 emerging creators to follow in 2024. The show will run from 6 to 16 July at 6 p.m. (except 10 July).
As part Souffle d’Avignon, organised by Scènes d’Avignon, 6 French-language playwrights living in Luxembourg, the Grand Est region and Belgium will explore the theme ‘inhabit the Earth, populate the world, write for the stage’ through texts created as part of the cross-border collective Le Gueuloir. Discover new writing by Luxembourgers Aude-Laurence Biver, Ian De Toffoli and Tullio Forgiarini read by Jean Boillot with Massimo Riggi, Ali Esmili, Régis Laroche, Laure Roldàn, Pauline Collet and Aude-Laurence Biver on 9 July at 6.30 p.m. in the Cloître Benoît XII du Palais des Papes.
A rich and diverse programme beyond the official selection
Héritage by Cédric Eeckhout, co-produced by Les Théâtres de la Ville, will run at the Théâtre des Doms and also represent Luxembourg at the Festival OFF d’Avignon.
In addition to shows at the OFF festival, 4 co-productions from Luxembourg by Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg will showcase Luxembourg’s outstanding dynamic arts scene during the IN festival: Absalon, Absalon ! based on the work by William Faulkner and produced by Séverine Chavrier; Elizabeth Costello. Sept leçons et cinq contes moraux (Elizabeth Costello, Seven lessons and five moral tales) based on the work by J.M. Coetzee and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski; Lacrima by Caroline Guiela Nguyen; and Liberté Cathédrale by Boris Charmatz.
Luxembourg returns with a national stand to the 41st Marché de la Poésie, the largest gathering of poetry in France. Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will be showcasing the richness and diversity of Luxembourg poetry from 19 to 23 June at the Place Saint Sulpice in Paris on its stand 515, a meeting place for poets, publishers, professionals and the general public.
Readings & Encounters | Luxembourg poetry: a remarkable individuality.
Thursday 20 June at 9.30pm – Espace Andrée Chedid, Issy-les-Moulineaux
With : Serge Basso de March, Jean Portante, Alexandra Shahrezaie, Lambert Schlechter, Florent Toniello, Luce van den Bossche.
Moderated by: Carole Carcillo Mesrobian, President of the French PEN Club
From Jean Portante and Lambert Schlechter, emblematic voices of Luxembourg and world poetry, to Luce van den Bossche, a young author who embodies the horizon of a new poetic wave, via Alexandra Shahrezaie, Serge Basso de March and Florent Toniello, author. The 6 poets invited to share this evening of readings and encounters embody a diversity of facets and voices within Luxembourg’s poetic landscape.
Free admission on reservation
La poésie luxembourgeoise : une individualité remarquable
Professional meetings | Poésies du Luxembourg
Friday 21 June 2024 from 9.30am to 11am – Café de la Mairie, Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris 6e
On the occasion of the 41st Marché de la Poésie, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, invites you to share a convivial moment over breakfast in the company of the poets and poetesses of Luxembourg. Programme :
- Introduction to Luxembourg’s poetic landscape with Jean Portante (author, poet and translator)
- Presentation of Kultur | lx grants for foreign publishing houses
- Presentation of recent publications in the presence of the authors.
By invitation only
Contact: brian.bailey@kulturlx.lu
During the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Maison du Luxembourg will become a unique space where sport and culture meet.
The ‘multi-nation’ house within the Jean Bouin stadium will host Luxembourg artists on the Team Deutschland Fan Zone stage. In partnership and with the support of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, the Maison du Luxembourg is offering a series of concerts showcasing the Luxembourg music scene over three electric evenings to thrill the public with the sound of the Grand Duchy! On the programme: Maz Univerze, De Läb, NOSI and Say Yes Dog.
Artistic programme in the Fan Zone:
- Maz Univerze: On 27 July, Maz Univerze will set the stage alight with his captivating mix of alternative emo rap with references to punk and metal music.
- De Läb & NOSI: On 1 August, De Läb and NOSI present a show of hip-hop and urban influences.
- Say Yes Dog: On 10 August, Say Yes Dog will round off this series of concerts in style. Their catchy electro-pop and catchy melodies will have the Fan Zone buzzing.
The Maison du Luxembourg invites all sports and culture fans to join these unforgettable musical evenings during the Olympic Games. Come and celebrate Luxembourg’s artistic diversity and support our athletes in the heart of Paris.
Tickets for the Maison du Luxembourg are available from www.maisonduluxembourg.lu.
About the Maison du Luxembourg
The Maison du Luxembourg is a space dedicated to Luxembourg during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Located on the 3rd floor of the Jean Bouin stadium, it offers an unforgettable experience with meetings with the athletes, live broadcasts, an exhibition on Luxembourg’s sporting history, live concerts and plenty of other events.
For the third year in a row, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg will be showcasing the richness and diversity of Luxembourg poetry at the 41st Marché de la Poésie, France’s largest poetry fair.
The stand, shared with Redfoxpress, will showcase the diversity of Luxembourg poetry and will be a meeting place for poets, publishers, professionals and enthusiastic audiences from all backgrounds during the five days of the event, which will be held from 19 to 23 June on the Place Saint Sulpice in Paris (Stand 515).
Luxembourg poetry will be featured on 20 June at 9.30pm at Espace Andrée Chedid (Issy-les-Moulineaux):
Meetings & Readings | Luxembourg poetry: a remarkable individuality.
This meeting will invite you to discover and exchange ideas with a selection of remarkable and acclaimed poets from Luxembourg: Serge Basso de March, Jean Portante, Alexandra Shahrezaie, Lambert Schlechter, Florent Toniello, Luce van den Bossche.
Moderated by: Carole Carcillo Mesrobian
In collaboration with PEN Club Français
The Kulturfabrik will be hosting “Périphéries du Marché” :
June 12 from 18:00 to 19:30 : debate about poetry Guy Helminger, Jean Portante, Juliette Mézenc and Olivier Mellano (moderation: Jeff Schinker) in collaboration with radio 100.7 at Librairie Diderich
On 13 June at 20:00: A literary encounter with Guy Helminger, Jean Portante, Juliette Mézenc and Olivier Mellano at Kufa. Musical accompaniment: AR (guitar duo).
In addition to meetings with the general public, Kultur | lx is organising a networking event for Luxembourg poets and French-speaking professionals (agents, publishers, media) on 21 June at 9.30am at the Café de la Mairie (Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris).
Visit the “Poésies du Luxembourg” stand (Stand 515) from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23 June.
Following a call for applications for the research and creation residency at Cité internationale des Arts, performance artist and writer Noé Duboutay was selected from a list of eleven applicants.
Jury members Vincent Gonzalvez (Cité internationale des arts), Lis Hausemer (MNAHA), Julien Hübsch (lauréat 2023), Nathalie Ronvaux (Kulturfabrik) and Francisco Sassetti (Philharmonie Luxembourg) assessed the applications received and awarded Noé Duboutay for his research project:“what a hero!”.
Statement of the jury
The jury was eager to highlight the extensive research conducted by the artist, noting its plural and persuasive nature. The Cité internationale des Arts can provide valuable guidance on the issues raised by the research project. The residency appears to coincide well with the artist’s current career stage. The avenues outlined in the dossier can also be further explored during the brief residency period.
Biography
Noé Duboutay is a performance artist and writer based in Berlin and Luxembourg.
They perform with their body and voice, making installations and props and writing scripts, poems, and prose exploring human identities’ entanglements with non-human entities and materialities.
Noé’s artistic practice moves within finding ways of experiencing a body and forms of embodiments that questions what makes a body and what reads a body. He navigates with the entanglements of social and political constructs of gender and sexuality and creates space for fragile uncertainty and softness.
Through fictive and virtual realms of writing and moving, Noé creates ways of finding queer connections, ally- and kinships as means to mutate with pleasure.
Born and raised in Luxembourg, they graduated in 2019 from HBKsaar with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, 2021 with a Master of Fine Arts from ZHdK, and they finished their performance studies in Live Art Forms at AdBK Nürnberg in 2023. Noé won the Akademiepreis AdBK Nürnberg in 2022 and received the Bourse Auguste van Werveke-Hanno the same year. In 2023, Noé published his first literary publication, “mud and the bros” with Lemon Press Zurich.
PROPULSION is a career development and networking programme dedicated to jazz and improvised music artists from the Région Grand Est (France), Luxembourg and the French-speaking part of Belgium.
The laureates, who are selected upon a call for proposals, are granted tailor-made training on touring, production and communication. Mentors from each country provide the laureates an artistic point of view and advice on their projects.
The first edition of the programme gave the bands of Daniel Migliosi (Luxembourg) and Hugo Diaz (Région Grand Est) the opportunity to be accompanied by the team of the Compagnie Tangram and the artistic mentors of the programme, who were Stéphane Scharlé and Maxime Bender.
This second edition of the program brings a number of new features. Firstly, the arrival of Belgian partners in the program, and the introduction of a second program entitled PropulsionWOMEN, aimed exclusively at female musicians wishing to develop their skills in the leadership of musical projects. In addition to taking part in the joint PROPULSION program, the aim of the three laureates will be to finalise an artistic project to be presented live by one of PROPULSION’s partners by the end of the program. The winners will be mentored by a fellow musician with a proven track record. The mentors are Marion Rampal for the Grand Est region, Claire Parsons for Luxembourg and Margaux Vranken for the French-speaking part of Belgium.
Propulsion #2 is also offering the second edition of its PropulsionBANDS program, dedicated to the career and artistic development of existing projects. The BAND mentors are Stéphane Scharlé for France, Jeff Herr for Luxembourg and Manuel Hermia for the French-speaking part of Belgium.
Both programmes have the following objectives:
- Accelerate the professionalisation of emerging talents through comprehensive, individualised support;
- Promote and raise the profile of a generation of jazz artists on a European scale;
- Promote cooperation between cross-border cultural players and create a network open to Europe;
- Exploit the potential of mentoring and pooling resources;
- Include eco-responsibility and social issues (parity, diversity, etc.).
Who are the Luxembourgish laureates of PROPULSION #2?
PropulsionWOMEN | Veda Bartringer, guitarist
Veda Bartringer is a multi-instrumentalist from Luxembourg. She discovered the world of jazz at the age of 17, taking classes at the Conservatoire d’Esch-sur-Alzette, the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and the École de Musique de Dudelange, where she learned from musicians such as Pit Dahm, Pol Belardi, David Laborier, Jacques Pirotton and Erik Teuwens.
Starting in 2017, she pursued advanced musical studies in jazz guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, graduating with a Master’s degree in jazz guitar in 2022. During these 5 years of study, she learned alongside guitarists Fabien Degryse and Victor Da Costa, as well as François Decamps. Veda is a member of several Belgian and Luxembourg projects and has shared the stage with various artists. She is currently working on several personal projects, including duo projects with saxophonist Fabrice Muratore, Madagascan guitarist Joël Rabesolo, a solo guitar project, as well as the Veda Bartringer Quartet.
Guitarist Claire Besson is the winner of PropulsionWOMEN for the Grand Est region, and Lucia Pires, a flautist based in French-speaking Belgium, has been selected to take part in the program.
PropulsionBANDS | The Metz Foundation, Joël Metz
Joël Metz is a saxophonist. Having achieved his Bachelor and Master studies at the conservatory of Amsterdam and Codarts Rotterdam, Joël pursues his musical career as a bandleader of his group The Metz Foundation, a sideman for projects like the Josh Island Band and the Luxembourg Jazz Orchestra and as an educator for modern music at the Conservatoire du Nord in Luxembourg.
With an affinity for extended techniques like multiphonics, Joël likes to combine traditionally informed material with experimental sounds in his playing.
PropulsionBANDS selected Nobaban for the Région Grand Est and Bodies for the French-speaking part of Belgium.
To better support Luxembourg’s dancers and choreographers, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois, in partnership with the National Dance Centre in Lyon and Le Gymnase CDCN in Roubaix, offers grants to a creative team based in Luxembourg to develop a dance project.
This grant runs over two years (2024 + 2025) and will support all aspects of the creative process: project development, promotion and international networking. The grant will also provide direct financial support for the production, residencies in Lyon and Roubaix, presence on international platforms, and funding for the development phase.
Following a call for applications, five proposals were received and the jury unanimously decided to award the EXPEDITION grant to William Cardoso.
Winner Statement
For William Cardoso, this grant represents “an extraordinary, unmissable opportunity (…) which will be the perfect occasion to create a new choreography in the perfect conditions. It will allow me to consolidate and further strengthen my relationships with cultural stakeholders at international level. The high-quality residencies offered by prestigious institutions such as the CN D in Lyon, Le Gymnase CDCN in Roubaix, the Grand Théâtre and TROIS C-L in Luxembourg, will allow me to develop a new work titled Deadline.
Deadline will explore and present the theme of rupture, a frequent occurence throughout our lives. This work seeks to disrupt the system to make a fresh start, rupture for rebirth. ”
Jury Statement
The jury, composed of representatives from the five partner institutions (Bernard Baumgarten – TROIS C-L; Tom Leick-Burns and Anne Legill – Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Davy Brun – CN D Lyon; Laurent Meheust – CDCN – Le Gymnase in Roubaix) commended the relevance and urgency of the theme of the project which demonstrate both the choreographer’s creative flow and the notions of our times. The jury noted William Cardoso’s unique approach to the body and the relationship between genders and praised the young choreographer’s maturity. The EXPEDITION grant will support the artist’s consistant career development, giving him the opportunity to take his research further, explore larger forms of choreography, and connect with international production and distribution networks.
About William Cardoso
William Cardoso is a choreographer and dancer based in Luxembourg and Portugal. His work celebrates everything that is a contradiction, unpredictable, creative and committed. It addresses intimate, personal issues that affect everyone. His performances point the finger at a heteronormative, patriarchal society. Hungry for change and filled with anger at injustice, his work often focuses on a fight and a physical effort as it defends various issues.
With his three works to date (Raum, Dear Mum, Baby), William Cardoso has developed his own identity using a unique language. A dialogue between bodies in conflict with their minds. His work echoes contact improvisation, yet goes against the flow with non-fluid, short, sharp movements.
Since 2016, Lët’z Arles has been bringing a bit of Luxembourgish creation to the Rencontres d’Arles. As an association that supports and promotes photography and artists linked to Luxembourg, Lët’z Arles offers each year to artists a complete creation and diffusion device. From July 1 to September 22, 2024, Luxembourg photographer Michel Medinger will be exhibiting at Chapelle de la Charité, curated by Sylvie Meunier.
Born in Luxembourg in 1941, Michel Medinger gradually developed a regular photographic practice. A self-taught photographer, he has experimented with a number of techniques: B/W photography, darkroom work using his own chemistries, cibachrome and Polaroids, creating a very special world for himself. An avid collector of objects, he uses these techniques in strange compositions filled with irreverent humor. His photographs, sometimes on iconoclastic subjects, are imbued with a sense of humour and poetry. Beyond his studio, he draws on objects from his everyday environment to construct his compositions and photographic tableaux, like a cabinet of curiosities. By obsessively staging them, with a penchant for surrealism, he introduces a singular narrative and relationships of scale. Michel Medinger leaves nothing to chance.
His work has taken the artist all over the world. He has exhibited his Polaroid Masterprints in Beijing, and taken part in exhibitions in Luxembourg, France, the USA, Denmark, Russia, Poland and Japan.