From July 7 to 12, 2024, a group of students from the Department of Romance Studies, led by Dr. García-Minguillán and prepared by Dr. Verena Richter, set off for the south of France to attend the internationally renowned theater festival in Avignon. Every July since 1947, the Provençal city has been transformed into a universe of spectacle, with impressive shows taking place on every street corner. Here, a traditional French cultural event literally meets the world, becomes one with it and delights audiences and actors alike.
At the end of a semester dedicated to contemporary theater, the students from Graz visited two exhibitions (including in the Maison Jean Vilar, the museum and archive in honour of the legendary festival founder) and numerous performances from the official festival program in Avignon, which took place in impressive venues, above all in the monumental Palais des Papes. The spectrum of productions ranged from high-level illusion and meta-theater, documentary theater and music theater to ritual performance, contemporary dance and choral singing. The political negotiation of global conflicts and injustices was at the center of this 78th Festival d'Avignon, whether in the reinterpretation of ancient myths, in the confrontation with (neo-)colonial and gender-specific violence in Latin America or in the vocal resistance against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
The meeting with a group of students from Leipzig, which was organized as part of the ARQUS network, provided a special framework for the excursion. The Austrian and German French students were as knowledgeable as they were enthusiastic as they explored a city that transforms itself, and with it reality, into a large theater stage every summer.
Nous nous reverrons à Avignon, sur scène...
You will soon find here the theater reviews written by the students of the Department of Romance Studies on the plays they attended in Avignon.