We Recommend
Research Seminar: Baudelaire and Philosophy
Wed 3 Oct - Wed 19 Jun
Goldsmiths University of London
Goldsmiths University is organising a year-long seminar exploring the poetic and critical writings of Charles Baudelaire and their impact on modern and contemporary philosophical thought, insisting on the richness and ambiguity inherent to his philosophy.
Talks
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams
Sat 2 Feb - Sun 1 Sept
V&A
Spanning 1947 to the present day, this exhibition traces 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
Balco Atlantico by Jérôme Ferrari
Wed 27 Mar - Mon 27 May
Quercus Books
In a village square in Corsica, two stories intertwine: that of Stéphane Campana, an ardent nationalist, shot dead, and that of brother and sister Khaled and Hayet, who once dreamt of a better future and are now stranded on the island.
Books
The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain
Wed 27 Mar - Sun 11 Aug
Tate Britain
This major exhibition brings together 45 works by Vincent van Gogh to reveal how he was inspired by Britain and how he inspired British artists.
Visual Arts
Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation
Fri 29 Mar - Fri 12 Jul
Stephen Spender Trust
Every year, the Stephen Spender Prize seeks to promote international literature, intercultural understanding and the art of literary translation. Its particularity resides in including the young, with categories including 14-and-under and 18-and-under.
Talks
No Place to Lay One’s Head by Françoise Frenkel
Wed 3 Apr - Mon 3 Jun
Pushkin Press
In 1921, Françoise Frenkel – a Jewish woman from Poland – opens her first bookshop in Berlin. It is a dream come true. But the rise of the Nazi regime means she has to flee, like so many others, all the way to Paris, then Nice, in order to survive.
Books
Days in the Caucasus by Banine
Wed 10 Apr - Mon 10 Jun
Pushkin Press
Recalling her youth in a nouveau riche family in Azerbaijan, the author retraces the economic, religious and political struggles of a country amidst the Bolshevik invasion, from the point of view of a woman also faced with the challenges inherent to her gender.
Books
Pissaro in Dulwich
Tue 30 Apr - Sun 4 Aug
Dulwich Picture Gallery
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Dulwich College, Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts a special display focusing on Camille Pissarro’s view of the school. A loan from the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse, the work returns to Dulwich for the first time since it was painted in 1871.
Visual Arts
Structures That Cooperate
Fri 3 May - Sun 2 Jun
Cubitt
Continuing Clémence Seilles's long-term 2018 artwork that re-imagines and implements a new spatial configuration for the gallery, the artist creates a new set of maquettes to welcome artist Ain Bailey into a reinvented space.
Visual Arts
Basquiat by Julian Voloj and Søren Glosimodt Mosda
Thu 9 May - Tue 9 Jul
SelfMadeHero
This stunning graphic novel captures the dramatic life and exhilarating times of the archetypal New York artist, covering everything from the SAMO graffiti project to his first solo show, and his early meetings with Andy Warhol.
Books
FOOD: Bigger than the Plate
Sat 18 May - Sun 20 Oct
V&A
From gastronomic experiments to urban farming, this exhibition brings together the politics and pleasure of food to ask how the collective choices we make can lead to a more sustainable, just and delicious food future.
Visual Arts
Huguette Caland
Fri 24 May - Sun 1 Sept
Tate St Ives
Shifting between figuration and abstraction, large, colourful canvasses and detailed drawings from the 1970s and 1980s, this exhibition will explore the delicate balance between the suggestive and the explicit that Caland created in her work.
Visual Arts
Maurice Gourdault-Montagne on Notre-Dame de Paris – Hay Festival
Sat 25 May
Hay Festival
Former French Ambassador to the UK, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, architect Amanda Levete, Professor Lindy Grant, and travel writer Patrick Marnham will discuss the significance, symbolic weight and historical endurance of Notre-Dame in the wake of the fire.
Talks
And if I were me by Act2 Company Catherine Dreyfus
Mon 27 - Tue 28 May
Imaginate Festival
In a giant transformable cube, three creature-dancers emerge, grow and unfold. A humorous and breathtaking dance performance fizzing with energy, looking at change and metamorphosis, And if I were me examines what makes each individual distinctively ‘me’.
Performing Arts
Eric Vuillard – Hay Festival
Mon 27 May
Hay Festival
2017 Goncourt Prize winner Eric Vuillard will be a guest speaker at Hay Festival, where he will discuss his artistic vision and projects for the future.
Talks
Eric Vuillard – British Library
Tue 28 May
British Library
2017 Prix Goncourt winner Eric Vuillard will discuss The Order of the day - which tells the story of the pivotal meetings which took place between the European powers in the run up to WW2, and analyses the possibility that History might repeat itself.
Talks
Militant Desire: Lionel Soukaz and Sexual Liberation Today
Wed 29 May - Wed 12 Jun
Gasworks
Militant Desire is a programme of film forums and consciousness-raising sessions around the experimental films of French gay liberation pioneer, Lionel Soukaz.
Visual Arts
Luis de Miranda & Michael Wells – Being & Neonness
Thu 30 May
Old Bookshop - Kentish Town
Being & Neonness is a cultural and philosophical history of neon, from early 20th century Paris to the electric, present day Manhattan, a metonym of contemporary identity and a metaphor for the present, linking consumerism, modernity, and subversion.
Talks
Kalakuta Republik by Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Thu 30 May - Sat 1 Jun
Barbican
Honouring activist, musical legend and political maverick, Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, Kalakuta Republik is a dizzying fusion of dance and music by Burkina Faso-born Serge Aimé Coulibaly, which speaks of modern-day Africa and the artist as freedom-loving figurehead.
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
NOW 5
Sat 1 Jun - Sun 22 Sept
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The 5th instalment of this series creates temporary works that change over time as they are subjected to natural processes of transformation and decay, thus exploring themes of change and growth.
Visual Arts
The Little Bath by Johanny Bert
Sat 1 - Sun 2 Jun
Imaginate Festival
Created for very young audiences, The Little Bath is a show full of white foam, smooth and floating, malleable and fragile. Working with this fascinating material is a dancer who sculpts it, blows it and creates landscapes and ephemeral characters.
Performing Arts
Pierre-Laurent Aimard – Stockhausen’s Kontakte & Klavierstucke
Sat 1 Jun
Southbank Centre
Member of the Ensemble intercontemporain and alumnus of the Franco-British fund for contemporary music, Diaphonique, Pierre-Laurent Aimard presents the avant-garde electronic work of Stockhausen, Kontakte & Klavierstucke.
Contemporary Music
Orelsan
Mon 3 Jun
02 Forum Kentish Town
The Basique rapper is simply one of the biggest names in French music and latest album La fête est finie was an undeniable smash. But Orelsan has a decade of music to draw on for this very rare London headline show and a killer stage show to go with it.
Contemporary Music
Stories from Europe
Tue 4 Jun
National Centre for Writing
As part of European Writers 2019, Javier Cercas, Christina Hesselholdt, Pajtim Statovci and Lina Wolffin discuss the way literature can offer new and challenging views on identity, history and diversity, in response to the changes faced by Europe.
Talks
Chinese Man
Tue 4 Jun
02 Shepherd's Bush Empire
One for the hip hop heads. Outrageously entertaining French rap Chinese Man are playing their first London show for three years. Support comes from rising South African rapper Yugen Blakrok, who appeared on the Black Panther soundtrack with Kendrick Lamar.
Contemporary Music
Lewis OfMan
Fri 7 Jun
Pickle Factory
Lewis OfMan’s disco pop draws on contemporary styles as much as 70s Italian film soundtracks. His songs, with their sophisticated jazzy chords and polished percussion, have the ability to take his audience on a shared emotional journey.
Contemporary Music
Tom Haugomat and Melek Zertal at ELCAF
Sat 8 - Sun 9 Jun
Round Chapel
Paris-based artists Tom Haugomat and Melek Zertal will be part of the 8th East London Comics and Arts Festival (ELCAF) happening from 7 to 9 June. Tom Haugomat will run a Stencil Workshop and Melek Zertal talk about comics and Identity.
Visual Arts
Jean Rondeau
Mon 10 Jun
Wigmore Hall
An individualist, whose performances have enthralled international audiences, rounds off a programme of works imagined for his instrument with Brahms’s keyboard arrangement of Bach’s great D minor violin chaconne.
Classical Music
Welcome to the UK by PSYCHEdelight
Tue 11 - Wed 12 Jun
The Cockpit
PSYCHEdelight’s new show, performed by refugees and European performers, is both a satire of immigration policy and an ode to the UK. Expect humour, horror, live music and candy floss.
Performing Arts
Anti-feminism in France and the UK
Thu 13 Jun
Senate House
In the context of growing public awareness on issues of gender stereotypes, harassment, discrimination and violence, academics discuss how the discourse of misogyny and anti-feminism has been historically constructed.
Talks
Ensemble Court-Circuit – Across the Channel
Fri 14 Jun
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
A concert crossing the English Channel, both musically and in-person as the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and NEXT Musicians are welcoming musicians from Paris-based Ensemble Court-Circuit. Supported by Diaphonique.
Classical Music
A Date with History: Fashion, Food and Feminism
Fri 14 - Sat 15 Jun
York Festival of Ideas
How do the iconic symbols of French and British culture define our national identity? Discover the many surprising ways in which we enjoy a shared cultural heritage and the transformations taking place today.
Talks
The Damned (Les Damnés)
Wed 19 - Tue 25 Jun
Barbican
The Institut français proudly supports the return of the Comédie-Française to London, after an absence of 19 years from the UK, with The Damned, by Luchino Visconti, directed by Ivo Van Hove. Following its triumph at the opening of the Avignon Festival in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes and its sell-out run in both Paris and New York, The Damned depicts the disintegration of a society, a drama that finds unsettling parallels today.
Performing Arts
Masterclass with Guillaume Gallienne
Fri 21 Jun
Barbican
Join award-winning actor, director and screenwriter Guillaume Gallienne for a Masterclass hosted by journalist and critic Matt Trueman, alongside Comédie-Française’s production of The Damned, directed by Ivo van Hove.
Performing Arts
10,000 Gestures by Boris Charmatz
Sat 22 - Sun 23 Jun
Tate Modern
Returning to Tate Modern where he brought his Musée de la danse in 2015, Boris Charmatz presents an ephemeral piece composed of 10,000 gestures performed in a torrent of unrepeating movements, questioning the nature of dance’s relationship to time.
Performing Arts
French Writers at Shubbak Festival
Fri 28 Jun - Sun 14 Jul
Various Venues
Shubbak is London's largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture. The festival returns in 2019 bringing Arabic artists, music and events to London, and will host three French writers: Leïla Slimani, Joseph Kai and Inaam Kachachi.
Talks
The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2019
Fri 28 - Sun 30 Jun
Exhibition Road
The Great Exhibition Road Festival is a new three-day celebration of the arts and science in the spirit of the Great Exhibition of 1851. A unique programme of creative workshops, talks, exhibitions and performances will connect the area’s iconic institutions, including the French Institute, to create a unique weekend of discovery.
Performing Arts, Talks, Visual Arts
Shubbak Festival
Fri 28 Jun - Sun 14 Jul
Various Venues
This year’s edition of Shubbak features two thought-provoking performances by France-based Syrian artists Ramzi Choukair and Wael Ali: X-Adra and Under a Low Sky as well as French writers Leïla Slimani, Joseph Kai and Inaam Kachachi.
Performing Arts
Félix Vallotton
Sun 30 Jun - Sun 29 Sept
Royal Academy of Arts
Magnetic, provocative, daring: meet Félix Vallotton (1865–1925). The Royal Academy reveals the vision of a masterful painter and printmaker who captured the emotional undercurrents of Paris at the turn of the last century.
Visual Arts
Lucas Dabargue
Fri 5 Jul
Wigmore Hall
The French Pianist, since coming to international attention at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has won plaudits for his highly personal performances of a carefully selected repertoire.
Classical Music
Echo Rising Stars: Anaïs Gaudemard
Fri 5 Jul
LSO St Luke's
Anaïs Gaudemard is an internationally recognized harp soloist of singular artistry and charisma. She will play an innovative repertoire from standards of Fauré and Debussy to Camille Pépin (UK premiere of her new commission Nighthawks).
Classical Music
Xavier Phillips & François-Frédéric Guy
Sat 6 Jul
Wigmore Hall
Devoting their programme to a single composer, two exceptional French artists perform almost the entirety of Beethoven’s output for cello and piano, demonstrating his range and development over a series of pieces produced between 1796 and 1815.
Classical Music
Warwick Translates Summer School
Sat 6 - Wed 10 Jul
University of Warwick
Warwick Translates is a literary translation summer school that offers the opportunity to translate texts across the literary genres into English, working with leading professional translators. Registrations are now open.
Talks
Max Emanuel Cencic, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu & Franck-Emmanuel Comte
Thu 11 Jul
Wigmore Hall
The fictionalised historical figure of the Carolingian knight Roland (or Orlando) inspired innumerable Baroque operas, sampled here by the Croatian star countertenor alongside his period-instrument colleagues and with a handful of instrumental interludes.
Classical Music
Transnational Families, Transnational Novels
Fri 12 - Sat 13 Jul
Senate House
This two-day symposium will interrogate the ways in which the novel, a genre born in the 19th century in the context of the rise of nation-states, has evolved to reflect an interconnectedness inherent to modernity and globalisation, focusing on migrations.
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
Jean Paul Gaultier: Fashion Freak Show
Tue 23 Jul - Fri 2 Aug
Southbank Centre
Provocative, exuberant and as funny as ever, fashion’s enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier presents new designs alongside his most iconic creations in a performance thought out like a grand party, part revue, part catwalk show – paying tribute to those who inspired him, from Preljocaj to Madonna.
Performing Arts
Le Concert Spirituel, Herve Niquet
Sat 27 Jul
Wigmore Hall
The founder-director of one of Europe’s most durable and expert period-instrument ensembles leads a programme that simulates the musical experience of the mass in the time of Mozart and Haydn.
Classical Music
The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gauguin Portraits
Mon 7 Oct - Sun 26 Jan
The National Gallery
The first ever exhibition devoted to the portraits of Paul Gauguin. Spanning the later years of his life and focusing solely on his portraits, this exhibition follows Gauguin’s move away from Impressionism towards Symbolism.
Visual Arts