We Recommend
Illuminating Women: Photographs by Mayotte Magnus
Sat 8 Sept - Sun 24 Mar
National Portrait Gallery
This exhibition celebrating creative women revisits key portraits from Magnus including artists Liliane Lijn and Glenys Barton, authors Marina Warner and Margaret Drabble, actresses Glenda Jackson and Judi Dench or Nadine Gordimer.
Visual Arts
Renzo Piano – The Art of Making Buildings
Sat 15 Sept - Sun 20 Jan
Royal Academy of Arts
From The Shard in London to the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the buildings of Renzo Piano have enriched cities across the globe. This exhibition reveals the vision and invention behind his pioneering work, showing how architecture can touch the human spirit.
Visual Arts
Courtauld Impressionists: from Manet to Cézanne
Mon 17 Sept - Sun 20 Jan
National Gallery
This exhibition traces the development of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings through a selection of over forty masterpieces from the collection of the Courtauld Gallery, including famous works by Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Manet and Seurat.
Visual Arts
Ulla von Brandenburg: Sweet Feast
Thu 20 Sept - Sun 31 Mar
Whitechapel Gallery
Ulla von Brandenburg takes previous Whitechapel Gallery exhibition Sweets (1973) as inspiration for this new commission. Von Brandenburg re-enacts this show with local children in a new immersive and colourful seating structure. With the support of Fluxus Art Projects.
Visual Arts
Pierre Huyghe
Wed 3 Oct - Sun 10 Feb
Serpentine Galleries
Pierre Huyghe, one of the world’s leading conceptual artists, presents a major new exhibition transforming the Serpentine Gallery into a porous and contingent environment, housing different forms of cognition, emerging intelligences, biological reproduction and instinctual behaviours. Exhibition supported by Fluxus Art Projects.
Visual Arts
Pin-Ups: Toulouse-Lautrec and the Arts of Celebrity
Sat 6 Oct - Sun 20 Jan
Scottish National Gallery
This exhibition focuses on Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithographic posters, portfolio prints and illustrations which made stars of Montmartre’s venues and their entertainers such as Yvette Guilbert, Jane Avril and Aristide Bruant.
Visual Arts
Modern Couples – Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde
Wed 10 Oct - Sun 27 Jan
Barbican Art Gallery
Explore modern art and modern love; this major exhibition reveals how relationships can become a playground for creativity.
Visual Arts
For the Love of Corals
Sat 27 Oct - Sat 19 Jan
Obsidian Coast (Bradford-on-Avon)
Obsidian Coast presents its inaugural exhibition, For the Love of Corals by artist Sonia Levy, a cinematic inquiry that focuses on the daily labour of caring for endangered beings to resuscitate them from their imminent human-induced extinction. Supported by Fluxus Art Project.
Visual Arts
Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures
Fri 23 Nov - Sun 17 Mar
Tate Liverpool
Enthralled by the vibrancy of modern life, Fernand Léger's paintings, murals, film and textiles were infused with the bustle and rhythm of the metropolis. (Re)discover his work in this first major exhibition to him in the past 30 years.
Visual Arts
Édouard Glissant, A Poetics of Resistance by Sam Coombes
Wed 28 Nov - Mon 28 Jan
Bloomsbury
Sam Coombes offers an analysis of Glissant's thought, setting out the reasons why his vision for a world of intercultural interaction reflects and seeks to provide a correction to some of the leading tendencies associated with contemporary theory today.
Books
The Arab of the Future III by Riad Sattouf
Wed 5 Dec - Tue 5 Feb
Hodder & Stoughton
After having followed her husband to Libya and then to Syria, Riad's mother can't take any more of village life in Ter Maaleh: she wants to go back to France. Young Riad sees his father torn between his wife's aspirations and the weight of family traditions...
Books
Lévi-Strauss, A Biography by Emmanuelle Loyer
Wed 12 Dec - Tue 12 Feb
Polity
In this award-winning biography, historian Emmanuelle Loyer recounts Lévi-Strauss’s childhood in an assimilated Jewish household, his promising student years as well as his first forays into political and intellectual movements.
Books
Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne by Roland Topor
Wed 19 Dec - Tue 19 Feb
Atlas Press
This novel, written and illustrated by Roland Topor, is perhaps a fable, perhaps a love story of enormous tenderness, or it may be a sequence of ever more sinister events that culminate in horror and atrocity. It all depends on your point of view.
Books
London International Mime Festival
Wed 9 Jan - Sun 3 Feb
Various Venues
This Festival spans the spectrum of contemporary visual performance. Watch out for French artists Olivier de Sagazan, Les Antliaclastes, Theatre de l'Entrouvert and Plexus Polaire. As part of En Scène!
Performing Arts
The Survival of the Jews in France: 1940-1944 by Jacques Semelin
Wed 16 Jan - Sat 16 Mar
Hurst Publishers
Renowned historian of genocide Jacques Semelin reconsiders French responses to the Nazis’ attempts to exterminate France’s Jewish population, exploring the enigma of how 75% of French Jews survived in spite of the collaboration of the Vichy regime.
Books
Beatrice Gibson: Deux sœurs qui ne sont pas sœurs
Fri 18 Jan - Sun 31 Mar
Camden Art Center
This film takes inspiration from the 1929 unrealised script by American Novelist Gertrude Stein. Beatrice Gibson uses Stein' script as a talismanic guide through a contemporary moment of social and political unrest. With the support of Fluxus Art Projects.
Visual Arts
MyFrenchFilmFestival
Fri 18 Jan - Mon 18 Feb
Online
Organised by UniFrance, MyFrenchFilmFestival is an online film festival for all lovers of French cinema. Discover 28 films that have not yet been released, and take part in the votes for your favourite film!
Films & TV
Etienne Daho
Sat 19 Jan
Electric Brixton
Blitz, the most recent, psych-influenced album from the godfather of the current French pop scene, is one of the most acclaimed of his stellar career. It was also heavily inspired by London, so it's fitting that it's finally getting a live airing in the UK.
Contemporary Music
Book Launch – Les Miroirs vagabonds ou la décolonisation des savoirs
Sat 19 Jan
October Gallery
Philosopher Seloua Luste Boulbina is hosting the launch of her latest book, a postcolonial analysis of the way our categories of thought and knowledge are shaped by the colonial heritage, and how bright, younger minds need to remedy this through art and work.
Talks
Borderline & Welcome to the UK
Tue 22 Jan - Sat 16 Feb
The Bunker Theatre
The Borderline company presents the world premiere of their new show Welcome to the UK. They will also be performing their first show, Borderline, a satire of Calais Jungle devised and performed by a mixed ensemble of refugee and European performers.
Performing Arts
The Life of Arthur Rimbaud
Tue 22 Jan
Blacks Club
The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation is hosting a talk by Prof. Seth Whidden about the compelling life of the enfant terrible poet. What makes Rimbaud’s poetry important is part of what makes his life so intense: rebellion, audacity, creativity and exploration.
Talks
Notre Dame de Paris
Wed 23 - Sun 27 Jan
London Coliseum
After touring in 23 countries worldwide over the last 20 years, the smash-hit French musical based on the novel Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo returns to London with an international team of singers, dancers, acrobats and music composed by Richard Cocciante.
Performing Arts
Pierre Bonnard, the Colour of Memory
Wed 23 Jan - Mon 6 May
Tate Modern
The exhibition concentrates on Bonnard's work from 1912, when colour became a dominant concern in his work and his unconventional use of it.
Visual Arts
BETT 2019
Wed 23 - Sat 26 Jan
ExCeL London
BETT is the first industry show in the education technology landscape. Visit the French stand to meet French leading companies and exciting new start-ups.
Talks
Sacha Guitry, Ma Fille et Moi
Mon 28 Jan - Sat 2 Feb
The Playground Theatre
Following a sell out run in London in January 2018, this hit show, inspired by the life and works of Sacha Guitry, takes you on a frantic journey through the ups and downs of theatrical life. In French with English sur-titles.
Performing Arts
Calogero
Tue 29 Jan
02 Shepherds Bush Empire
Following the release of his latest album, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, Calogero’s Liberté Chérie tour began in March and has seen him performing to sold-out audiences in France and Asia. He is now bringing his French pop-rock melodies to London for a one-off show.
Contemporary Music
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Sat 2 Feb - Sun 14 Jul
V&A
Spanning 1947 to the present day, this exhibition will trace the history and impact of one of the 20th century’s most influential couturiers, exploring the enduring influence of the fashion house, and Dior’s relationship with Britain.
Visual Arts
Leïla Slimani: Adèle
Mon 4 Feb
Southbank Centre
In an exclusive UK appearance before the publication of her highly anticipated new novel, Adèle, see the author of Lullaby in conversation with Sam Baker. Adèle is an erotic thriller that explores addiction, relationships and sexuality in contemporary Paris.
Talks
Un Oeil, Une Histoire: What Do We Do When We Do Art History?
Sat 9 Feb
Birkbeck Cinema
Birkbeck, the Warburg Institute and the Courtauld present Un Oeil, Une Histoire, a series of French-made documentaries focusing on well-known art historians, including Svetlana Alpers and Georges Didi-Huberman, tracing their trajectory into the discipline.
Films & TV, Visual Arts
The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation – The Arts of Decadence
Tue 12 Feb
Senate House
The special event will provide a multivocal approach to the Decadent Movement in arts and literature, insisting on its interdisciplinary influence. It will address the way Decadent art questioned and debunked accepted social, political and artistic norms.
Talks
The Limiñanas
Wed 13 Feb
100 Club
One of the coolest rock bands in France, The Limiñanas recorded their most recent album of psychedelic guitar pop, Shadow People, with Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Anton Newcombe and are touring rarities compilation I've Got Trouble In Mind Vol 2
Contemporary Music
Kader Attia: The Museum of Emotion
Wed 13 Feb - Mon 6 May
Hayward Gallery - Southbank Centre
Kader Attia’s first UK survey exhibition questions our ideas of wholeness and injury, authenticity and repair, belonging and otherness in regard to the legacy of western colonialism.
Visual Arts
Bêka & Lemoine: Moriyama-San
Thu 14 Feb
The Design Museum
Join an evening of screening and conversation with French filmmakers Bêka & Lemoine with Home Futures curator Eszter Steierhoffer. Their work experiments with new narrative and cinematographic forms in relation to contemporary architecture.
Visual Arts
Yann Tiersen
Tue 19 - Wed 20 Feb
Southbank Centre
Amélie composer and multi-instrumentalist Yann Tiersen performs from his new album, All, in the UK for the first time on 19 and 20 February at Royal Festival Hall. Incorporating field recordings from his Brittany home, the redwood forests of California and Tempelhof airport in Berlin, plus guest vocalists, All continues the themes explored on Tiersen's earlier album EUSA.
Contemporary Music
The Son by Florian Zeller
Wed 20 Feb - Sat 6 Apr
Kiln Theatre
As a family breaks down, a son begins to unravel. Following the Olivier Award-winning The Father and the critically-acclaimed The Mother, comes the highly anticipated UK premiere of playwright Florian Zeller's latest in a production by Michael Longhurst.
Performing Arts
Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life
Thu 28 Feb - Sun 19 May
The National Gallery
Explore revolutionary Paris through Boilly’s daring and playful paintings. Working in a politically turbulent Paris, Louis-Leopold Boilly witnessed the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the Restoration of the French Monarchy.
Visual Arts
Yara Lapidus
Mon 4 Mar
Brasserie Zédel
The hypnotic French-Lebanese singer-songwriter released French-language album Indéfiniment last year, which saw her collaborate with veteran composer and producer Gabriel Yared. Her forthcoming international record, meanwhile, features a duet with Iggy Pop.
Contemporary Music
The Blaze
Tue 12 Mar
Roundhouse
The biggest London date yet for emotive electronic duo The Blaze - cousins Guillaume and Jonathan Alric - who have been causing a stir with their moving, cinematic visuals and the powerful but danceable tracks that make up debut album Dancehall.
Contemporary Music
La Fabrique des Traducteurs
Tue 19 Mar - Thu 23 May
Collège International des Traducteurs
The French association for the promotion of literary translation Atlas is offering emerging translators under 35 an amazing professional development opportunity in the form of an intense two-month programme (“La Fabrique des Traducteurs”), set in Arles.
Talks
Leyla McCalla
Thu 28 Mar
Kings Place
Haitian-American singer and multi-instrumentalist McCalla is a vital voice whose new album The Capitalist Blues looks at the pressure cooker her country has become while drawing on jazz and folk as well as traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music.
Contemporary Music
Going Through by Estelle Savasta
Thu 28 Mar - Sat 27 Apr
Bush Theatre
Going Through is a poetic and touching story of one girl’s journey through adolescence, across borders and through a well-guarded secret. As part of Cross Channel Theatre and En Scène! programmes.
Performing Arts
Leïla Slimani – Hay Festival
Sat 1 Jun
Hay Festival
The first Moroccan woman to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt, Leila Slimani will join Philippe Sands to discuss her thriller Lullaby and her new novel Adèle, as well as to share her views on women's and human rights and the promotion of French culture.
Talks
International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School
Sun 21 - Sat 27 Jul
University of East Anglia
The British Centre for Literary Translation, in partnership with the National Centre for Writing, is proposing an intensive, one-week, residential programme of translation and creative writing through a series of prose and poetry multilingual workshops.
Talks