The largest live performance event is also presented as an “eco-friendly festival”. What concrete steps are being taken on this matter, apart from the ecological sensitivity, the climate catastrophe that is increasingly felt in the planned shows? Interview with Ève Lombard, director of the Festival d’Avignon.
Published on : Changed :
RFI: The Festival Off d’Avignon association has obliged the 1,395 theater groups to drastically limit posters on the streets and says that it wants to reduce paper waste from 60 tons to 25 tons this year. What is the Festival In d’Avignon’s flagship action this year in the area of environmental responsibility? ?
Eve Lombard : We will primarily work on saving energy. Especially with our own building, La FabricA [inaugurée en 2013, cette salle de 600 places est la seule salle de théâtre permanente du Festival d’Avignon, NDLR]. From 2022 to 2024 we will install two systems to centralize electricity, adjust energy consumption and also install photovoltaic panels.
What is the quantified objective of the Festival d’Avignon in the field of ecological transition? Is there a planned carbon footprint for the 2023 edition? ?
Our goal is quite simply to respect them Paris Agreement [signés lors de la COP21 en 2015, ils prévoient de limiter le réchauffement climatique en dessous des 2 °C, NDLR]. We do not quantify the carbon footprint. Each year we will focus our teams’ energies on changing their professional practices. That’s what we’re really focusing on. They are small gestures in everyday life and in the entire professional practice that need to evolve. We won’t achieve the Paris Agreements by numbers alone.
► also read : “Let’s decarbonize culture”, art, cinema, books, entertainment, digital…
The reopening of the Carrière de Boulbon, a legendary site and the second stage of the festival with 1,200 seatsrepresents one of the events of this 2023 edition. In addition to the planned cost of 350,000 euros for the reopening of the natural site, after the terrible fires last summer, 250,000 euros are added for fire protection. Have you also considered creating a carbon footprint for the current show? The Garden of Delights by Philippe Quesne and the future use of this exceptional natural and artistic site ?
If you discover Philippe Quesne’s show, you will see that he is very respectful and highlights the Carrière de Boulbon site. This is really the approach we want to take when reinvesting in a natural site like the Carrière de Boulbon. That the site will be better protected by our occupation than if there were no occupation of the Festival d’Avignon. Thanks to all the preventive measures, the clearing of the undergrowth and the watch to monitor possible fires, the site is now better protected with the presence of the Festival d’Avignon teams than without.
That means there is no planned carbon footprint ?
No, we really focus our energy and intention. Also, it is more mobilizing for the teams to take part in the action and change their practices than to take part in the census, followed by some more administrative criteria, which in the end consists of quantifying a carbon footprint. We have not taken that position.
In this year’s program of the festival it is obvious that there are many shows in nature or offering some other connection with the environment around us. Over Garden of Delights by Philippe Quesne, Caroline Barneaud and Stefan Kaegi, for example, suggest exploring plains and forests to complete their set of seven pieces called “ Divided Landscapes. Clara Hédouin designed That remains my joya show that alternates play and walk in a lively setting… Does this increasingly pressing ecological awareness also change the content, aesthetics and forms of the selected shows? ?
Today we have the feeling, both on the part of the artists and on the part of the public, that the connection to nature must be palpable. True, in the shows shown, the place of nature, this relationship with the living, is much more significant. We want a more meaningful relationship with the living. It’s less easy to present shows outdoors and in nature, but this relationship with the show challenges our relationship with the world. Today, the core of our relationship with the world lies in our relationship with life and nature.
Does the Festival d’Avignon have the ambition to be at the forefront of the ecological field in the years to come? ?
Absolutely. The particularity of the Festival d’Avignon is that it is a professional platform that brings all the theater professionals to Avignon this month of July. It is also a great opportunity for discussion, demonstration and perhaps a role model for the evolution of our practices, for collective reflection on how our professions must evolve, how they must mutate into a more sober professional practice and thus achieve these goals of reducing our emissions in the framework of the Paris Agreement, which would be an overall objective. For this we want to take advantage of the exceptional site of the Festival d’Avignon, where all the professionals come together to share their practices. It is evident that the Festival d’Avignon’s role and ambition is to be this catalyst for new practices.
► July 15 at 5 p.m.: “Produce better: ecological emergency and social emergency”.
As part of the Café des Idées, the Festival d’Avignon has a round table with Nicolas Dubourg (Syndeac), Jeanne Candel (director and co-director of the Théâtre de l’Aquarium), Émilie Capliez (co-director of the Comédie de Comar and President of the Association of National Dramatic Centers), Denis Gravouil (CGT), Christopher Miles (Ministry of Culture).
