Nouvelles Rencontres d'Averroès

When astonishment grips the world and brings lives to a standstill, sometimes all that remains are escape routes to hold on to. From Beirut to Gaza, from the southern to the northern Mediterranean, beyond geographical coordinates, trajectories remain, along with a seedbed of possibilities and a need to think.

More than movement, the issue is transcendence, when the borders — real or symbolic — that obstruct journeys or become permanently rooted in people’s minds already raise questions about the very possibility of crossing them. For the obstacles are numerous: war and its traps, fear and its walls, arbitrariness and its violence. Under the dual motto Crossing / Breaking Free, the New Averroès Meetings, organized this year with the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour, explore how societies seek paths to emancipation despite conflicts and their upheavals, both intimate and collective. They also question the constant overstepping of the boundaries of law and freedoms, in a renewed quest for forms of citizenship to defend and reinvent.

Crossing / Breaking Free thus constitutes an act of initiative: continuing to move, create and pass things on despite obstacles. It means thinking about thresholds, boundaries and passages through dialogue between generations and the sharing of legacies. Testimonies, narratives and words that refuse confinement or resignation make up this program, which calls for solidarity to be placed at the heart of collective dynamics.

From Wednesday, October 28 to Sunday, November 1, find your regular events (round tables, debates and masterclasses), as well as a major conversation marking the 900th anniversary of the philosopher Averroès with numerous guests, a tribute to Leïla Shahid and major evenings with Rima Abdul-Malak and her Rima Poésie Club, Charles Berberian for a drawn concert and Fred Nevché for a unique intimate concert.

Please note: change of dates and venues! The New Averroès Meetings have been brought forward by a few weeks (October 28-November 1) because they are part of the Saison Méditerranée program. Due to work at La Criée, the event will be held at the Odéon theater (162 La Canebière), Espace Julien (Wednesday evening) and Mucem (Thursday evening).