From 4 to 25 July, at the Cloître Saint-Louis
Free entry – Café and light refreshments available on site.
Every day, the Café des Idées is a meeting place where leading figures from literature, science, philosophy, and the performing arts come together to share their insights and engage in critical debate. On the occasion of the 80th Festival d’Avignon, it becomes more than ever a space to address questions: those that artists make to the world, those that performing arts give rise to, and those from the public. Debates, conferences, workshops, and radio broadcasts animate this site, which embodies the spirit of the Festival: a space for dialogue, free thinking, and discovery, open to all.
A few events not to be missed:
4 July, 10:30 a.m.
Chambord: What performance did you escape?
Mohamed El Khatib and Patrick Boucheron open the Café des idées with the story of an interrupted project and a reflection on what it means to produce – or not produce – today.
7 July, 10 a.m.
What happens when everything can be said?
For their first appearance at the Festival d’Avignon, the journalists of Le Papotin take over the Cloître Saint-Louis for a conversation with Mathilde Monnier and Lucie Antunes.
12 July, 11:30 a.m.
How can we write about snow?
For an exceptional encounter, the Café des idées welcomes Han Kang, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, invited by Laure Adler for a conversation about memory, silence and what is passed on.
14 July, 11:30 a.m.
How did women give shape to the revolution?
With Libération, the Café des idées explores how women have given a new face to the Iranian revolution.
18 July, 10:30 a.m.
When do we stop seeing?
Drawing on Un procès by Christiane Jatahy and Wagner Moura, Edwy Plenel and the Human Rights League examine what is at stake when facts remain unanswered.
Rich with numerous events, the Café des idées also hosts the Matinales with artists from the programme, Faith and Culture meetings with the Diocese of Avignon, events organised with the Critics’ Union, broadcasts by France Culture and France Inter, Making Waves, events with La Nouvelle Revue française, conversations around Ukraine, and many more.