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The Avignon Festival 2008 (1)Jackie Fletcher reportsDateline: 10th July, 2008One of the most important events on the European Festival calendar, the Festival d'Avignon has a charm and a pith all of its own. On the one hand there are the winding streets of the old town within its mediaeval ramparts, the abundance of picturesque churches and cloisters, open-air performances on balmy evenings or excellent coffee served on a terrace under an impeccable blue sky. Also, there is the official festival, the IN, three weeks of cutting edge performances by the cream of European directors, choreographers, visual artists, and the OFF, the fringe, which this year has topped the 1,000 show mark, in small venues dotted around the city. Avignon is not just a festival of performances. It is a meeting point for audiences, many who return year after year, like pilgrims, from far and wide, professionals, critics and commentators of all kinds who join together to attend conferences, debates and round-table discussions on subjects pertaining to the arts in the 21st century. This year there is a two-day conference co-organised by the universities of Avignon and Aix-en-Provence (which hosts a renowned festival of opera), a series of debates on topical subjects called The Theatre of Ideas, a full day of discussions organised by the French ministry of culture aimed at promoting artistic co-operation within Europe, conferences for press and public, opportunities for the public to debate with the artists, workshops, films, documentaries and so forth. For three weeks Avignon is buzzing with debate, discussion and critical encounters. In this respect, Avignon fulfils an important function within France itself and equally within European artistic networks, all the more so due to the extent of audience participation in these events. Audiences have always played an essential role in Avignon, not as bums on seats, but as partners in the creation of the performances. Ever since Jean Vilar first staged theatre productions in the Cours d'Honneur of the Papal Palace in 1947, the festival's rationale has been to play a major role in the development of the performing arts in tandem with the education of audiences. So, if in Avignon the citizen-spectator is embraced as co-creator of meaning and encouraged to voice opinions, debate the issues, it is through a long-standing tradition founded on post-war ideals of European democracy. (For a further discussion concerning the origins and objectives of the Festival d'Avignon, see my four articles on the 2006 festival entitled Avignon I-IV in the British Theatre Guide archives.) Since the appointment of Vincent Baudriller and Hortense Archambault as co-directors in 2004, each festival has also had an artistic associate, an artist who has influenced the programming through his/her artistic vision. This year there are two artistic associates, the Italian director Romeo Castellucci and French actress Valérie Dréville. I was very sorry to miss the first conference for press and public which took place last week with the directors and associates (mea culpa). However, this morning I attended a conference with Romeo Castellucci in discussion with Antoine de Baecque (co-author of the recent tome Une Histoire du Festival d'Avignon, published by Gallimard, 2007). Castellucci exhibits a modesty that belies his directorial courage and depth of artistic vision. Initially having studied fine arts, Castellucci founded Societas Raffaello Sanzio with his wife, the dramaturge Chiara Guidi, and his sister, the writer Claudia Castellucci. Since 1981, the company has been searching for combinations that include originality in the scenic arts with a theatrical language that can be shared with audiences. For Castellucci, it is not the director who is at the fulcrum of the theatrical event, but the spectator. In exploring the means of artistic expression, he has blended forms ranging through theatre, music, opera, multimedia technology and painting with the aim of engaging the spectator's senses and eliciting a response from the sensual memory, a response which will engender private and personal images. An enemy of hackneyed symbolism, Castellucci believes in the power of physical energy to transmit a sense of the 'real' which is beyond the surfaces of 'reality'. 'Surface' is another term he decries, in speaking of the images he produces, he talks of the 'third image' that between or beyond the superficiality of the images projected and received, the images generated in response. The 'third image' is personal and profound and engraves itself on the sensual memory. Castellucci's contribution to this year's festival is a trilogy adapted from Dante's The Divine Comedy, a masterpiece which has terrified and attracted him from an early age. It is an apposite creation for Avignon, given its links in time and subject matter. Information concerning the festival can be found on www.festival-avignon.com.
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