We Recommend
The French Art of War by Alexis Jenni
Wed 26 Apr - Mon 26 Jun
Atlantic Books
Goncourt prize winner Alexis Jenni’s novel spans essential decades of recent French history, from the aftermath of the Second World War in the 1950s, to the decolonisation and Algerian war of the 1970s.
Books
Diary of a Vampire in Pyjamas by Mathias Malzieu
Wed 3 May - Mon 3 Jul
Quercus
This is a memoir by French bestselling and award-winning author and musician Mathias Malzieu. It focuses on a single year in which he explores his close encounter with death, after been diagnosed with a rare blood cell disease.
Books
Gilded Interiors: French Masterpieces of Gilt Bronze
Thu 4 May - Sun 30 Jul
The Wallace Collection
This exhibition brings together outstanding gilt-bronze objects from the time of Marie-Antoinette. Comprising of beautiful yet functional objects including clocks, candelabras and firedogs, it introduces a significant art form that is frequently overlooked.
Visual Arts
The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet
Wed 10 May - Mon 10 Jul
Harvill Secker
Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It’s February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with François Mitterrand, a politician locked in a battle for the Presidency. Barthes dies soon afterwards. But was it really an accident?
Books
Lucy Dixon
Tue 16 May - Thu 24 Aug
Brasserie Zédel
Dixon has carved out an eclectic career in theatre, music, performance art and dance. Her latest project Lulu's Back In Town pays homage to the 30s and 40s, bringing her vocal and tap skills to the fore with the support of a Parisian Manouche trio.
Contemporary Music
Hell’s Gate, by Laurent Gaudé
Wed 17 May - Mon 17 Jul
Gallic Books
When his son is killed by gangsters’ crossfire on his way to school, Napolitan taxi driver Matteo is consumed by despair. But he then encounters a man who claims the living can find ways into the afterlife. What if death was not the end?
Books
Graphic Witness
Thu 18 May - Sun 9 Jul
Drawing Room
The exhibition demonstrates the power of drawing to challenge and question, its capacity to record and reflect protest, and to produce images that bear witness to social injustice and even the horrors of war.
Visual Arts
La Fabrique des Humanités – A Translation Programme
Mon 22 May - Sun 15 Oct
Association pour la promotion de la Traduction Littéraire
ATLAS is launching a new programme of one-week workshops, specifically dedicated to fostering the flow of translations between English and French in Philosophy, the Humanities and Social Sciences. Apply now! Deadline for first workshop is June 15th, 2017.
Talks
The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrère
Wed 24 May - Mon 24 Jul
Allen Lane
Corinth, ancient Greece, two thousand years ago. An itinerant preacher, poor, wracked by illness, tells the story of a prophet who was crucified in Judea, who came back from the dead, and whose return is a sign of something enormous. The story spreads.
Books
At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
Wed 31 May - Mon 31 Jul
Vintage
Paris, near the turn of 1932-3. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking…
Books
Into the Unknown – A Journey Through Science Fiction
Tue 6 Jun - Fri 1 Sep
Barbican Centre
Into the Unknown is a festival-style exhibition bringing together artists, designers, filmmakers, SFX specialists, musicians and writers, all testing the boundaries of reality through some of the most experimental works of all time.
Films & TV, Talks, Visual Arts
A Handful of Dust
Wed 7 Jun - Sun 3 Sep
Whitechapel Gallery
A Handful of Dust is a speculative history of the 20th century, tracing a visual journey through the imagery of dust from aerial reconnaissance, wartime destruction and natural disasters to urban decay, domestic dirt and forensics.
Visual Arts
The Némirovski Question by Susan Suleiman
Wed 7 Jun - Mon 7 Aug
Yale University Press
In 2004, Suite française, Némirovsky’s posthumous novel, became an international best seller. Informed by personal interviews with Némirovsky’s descendants as well as by extensive archival research, this biography is a tribute to the author and her daughters.
Books
Solar Cream by Fabrice Cazenave
Fri 9 Jun - Sat 1 Jul
Eagle Gallery
Solar Cream consists of two distinct bodies of work; a series of large drawings 'à l'aveugle' and ‘Sliders’, and a series of works initiated in performed, remnant materials that are debris or by-products of other works by the artist.
Visual Arts
Blue Self-Portrait, by Noémi Lefebvre
Wed 14 Jun - Mon 14 Aug
Les Fugitives
The inner monologue of a woman haunted by German composer Arnold Schoenberg’s portrait, following a complex romantic encounter with an American-German pianist-composer in Berlin. A contemporary novel of angst and high farce.
Books
How to Get Rid of a Vampire by J.M. Erre
Wed 21 Jun - Mon 21 Aug
Alma Books
Zazie has just received a beautiful new notebook, and decides to keep a diary. She writes down her impressions of her new teacher, Mr Labat – who in her opinion looks like a vampire! She sets to save herself and her classmates by getting rid of Mr. Labat.
Books
European Portraits by Jimmy Robert
Thu 22 Jun - Sat 26 Aug
PEER UK
For PEER, Jimmy Robert presents a new performance work and gallery installation in response to issues that have emerged from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
Visual Arts
Translate at City
Mon 26 - Fri 30 Jun
City University
The EU Commission Representation in the UK is pleased once again to be supporting City University's literary translation summer school, Translate at City. The course's aim is to train translators to make literature in other languages accessible to the UK.
Talks
Christophe Rousset: Mitridate, re di Ponto
Mon 26 Jun - Fri 7 Jul
Royal Opera House
Christophe Rousset conducts an excellent cast including Albina Shagimuratova, Bejun Mehta, Lucy Crowe and Michael Spyres in Graham Vick’s acclaimed production of Mozart’s early opera.
Classical Music
Aquaserge & Laetitia Sadier
Tue 27 Jun
Corsica Studios
A night of unexpected time signatures and skewed melodies as Aquaserge - France's leading purveyors of psychedelic, progressive and subtly subversive pop - join forces with former Stereolab member Laetitia Sadier and rising UK exoticists Vanishing Twin.
Contemporary Music
Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes
Wed 28 Jun - Mon 28 Aug
MacLehose Press
Vernon Subutex is left to beg in the street after his music shop in Bastille bankrupted. But he has in his possession the last filmed recordings of Alex Bleach, the famous musician who just died. A crowd of people are now on Vernon's trail.
Books
Pop Up Lab 2017
Thu 29 - Fri 30 Jun
Chauffeurs Cottage
A practice-sharing conference for teachers, educators & literature professionals. This year’s Lab focuses on ‘visual storytelling’: the reading, teaching, making & publishing of illustrations. Guests include Marjolaine Leray and her translator Sarah Ardizzone.
Talks, Visual Arts
Church of Sound: Florian Pellissier Quintet – Freedom Jazz France
Thu 29 Jun
St James The Great Church
The Parisian pianist and his quintet cross the channel for a special event in Hackney's St James the Great. Their first set will pay tribute to French jazz from the early 60s to the 80s, while the second will feature their own Blue Note-inspired originals.
Contemporary Music
Jean Rondeau & Maurice Steger in London
Mon 3 Jul
Wigmore Hall
Award-winning young harpsichordist Jean Rondeau will play jewels of the keyboard repertoire with Maurice Steger who leads a whistle-stop tour to landmarks of the recorder repertoire, including Hasse’s joyful Cantata and the Sonata in G by Giuseppe Sammartini.
Classical Music
The Age of Enlightenment & William Christie
Tue 4 Jul
St John's Smith Square
Hear a concert of works by Bach and his contemporaries Rameau, JCF Fischer and Campra, performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and conducted by William Christie: "Bach goes to Paris".
Classical Music
French Culture Day at Church Street Library
Tue 4 Jul
Church Street Library
Free All-day event packed with activities for both adults and children with new French book-gifts, prizes and book sell throughout the day. Starting with Special French Under 5's session delivered by professional Story Tellers from the Institut français.
Talks
Sacré Printemps! – Cie Chatha
Wed 5 - Sun 9 Jul
Various venues
Inspired by the hopes and pressures of building a new civil society, choreographers Aïcha M’Barek and Hafiz Dhaou create a visceral streetscape of today’s Tunisia. Part of Shubbak 2017.
Performing Arts
The Awkward Squad by Sophie Hénaff
Wed 5 Jul - Tue 5 Sep
MacLehose Press
Suspended from her job as a police officer for firing "one bullet too many", Anne Capestan is expecting the worst when she is summoned to H.Q. to learn her fate. She is surprised to be told that she is to head up a new police squad, working on cold cases.
Books
Josephine Baker by Catel and Bocquet
Wed 5 Jul - Tue 5 Sep
Self Made Hero
In Josephine Baker, José-Luis Bocquet and Catel Muller capture the remarkable life and glorious times of a spirited, principled and thoroughly modern woman – a star, an ally for the French Résistance and the adoptive mother of a 'rainbow family' of 12.
Books
World Is Sudden: Summer Lab
Wed 5 - Tue 11 Jul
Various locations across Northeast England
Giles Bailey & CIRCA Projects have invited international artists, performers, musicians, designers and dancers to make artworks in the urban and natural environments of Northeast England.
Visual Arts
Displacement – Mithkal Alzghair
Thu 6 - Fri 7 Jul
Sadler's Wells
Displacement introduces the poignant work of Syrian dancer and choreographer Mithkal Alzghair. Deconstructing Syrian traditional dances, he brings to the surface the paradox of a deeply rooted culture and its current experience of displacement. Part of Shubbak
Performing Arts
Fibrils by Michel Leiris
Wed 12 Jul - Tue 12 Sep
Yale University Press
A major publishing event: the third volume of Michel Leiris’s renowned autobiography, The Rules of the Game, now available in English for the first time in a brilliant translation by Lydia Davis.
Books
Ensemble Court-Circuit at Cheltenham Music Festival
Fri 14 Jul
Parabola Arts Centre
A collaborative project between Court-Circuit Ensemble, Lyon Conservatoire and Birmingham Conservatory, with works by some of the most inventive British and French contemporary composers celebrating micro-tonality and the physicality of sound.
Classical Music, Contemporary Music
Corbeaux – UK Premiere
Fri 14 - Sat 15 Jul
Serpentine Galleries & Tate Modern
Drawing from Persian literature from 9th – 11th Century and memories of long trance nights in Marrakech, Bouchra Ouizguen has created an intense performance that interrupts and takes possession of public spaces. Part of Shubbak festival
Performing Arts
Golan Haji at the 2017 Shubbak Festival
Sat 15 Jul
British Library
Celebrated British poet and multi-disciplinary artist Malika Booker returns to Shubbak to welcome 4 mesmerising poets for bilingual performances of their work. The 2017 edition welcomes Golan Haji, Syrian Kurdish poet and translator, author of Scale of Injury.
Talks
Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State
Wed 19 Jul - Tue 19 Sep
Hurst
Into the debate about ISIS’ origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist, Olivier Roy, argues that while terrorism and jihadism are familiar phenomena, the deliberate pursuit of death has produced a new kind of radical violence.
Books
Trajal Harrell: Hoochie Koochie – A Performance Exhibition
Thu 20 Jul - Sun 13 Aug
Barbican Centre
Trajal Harrell will present an overview of his entire body of work in the Barbican Art Gallery. The exhibition showcases the works of French artists who will be performing a range of Trajal’s works over a period of 16 days.
Performing Arts
François Leleux & Eric Le Sage at Edinburgh Festival
Wed 16 Aug
The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Oboist François Leleux and pianist Eric Le Sage present a programme including Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc, Dutilleux and Dorati. This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Classical Music