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What can tenderness do? A weekend devoted entirely to the arts, featuring music, dance, theater, exhibitions, screenings, and more…
As the world accelerates, tenderness emerges as a choice—an attentiveness to others, to living things, and to our interdependence. A sensitive way to resist and imagine other ways of being together. What can tenderness do? That is the question we are asking. This year, Oblique Festival returns to explore tenderness as both intimacy and activism, with emerging artists from dance, theater, music, circus, visual arts, and cinema. Following an open call that attracted more than 400 applications, the Festival brings together 30 performing and visual artists and collectives, offering just as many approaches to tenderness. A festive weekend filled with performances, exhibitions, and encounters. The program in detail OPENING of Oblique Galerie Friday, September 4, from 7 p.m. Exhibiting artists: > Friche Hanaé Bradshaw A New Mythology of Water | installation/sculpture Stained glass, chalices, and a laboratory notebook for connecting with the microscopic life of threatened wetlands. Juliette Charpentier Pietas – Infusing Those We Never Mourn and Operating Field Screen Print | installation Two works combining medicinal plants and single-use surgical drapes, where medical care meets care for the living world. Jade Gabion Geography of Time | photography Silver prints from family archives and observations of the Finistère Nord landscape, questioning the emotional bonds that connect us to a living territory. Éléonore Guiraud PHILIA | photography Portraits exploring friendships within gender minorities. Women drawing strength from one another. Romane Desbois Flesh Sensation | painting Oil paintings on fabric that cast a tender, sensual gaze on men’s bodies, opening the way to other representations of masculinity. Morgan Bisoux Eidolon and GHOST | painting Hyperrealistic oil paintings on canvas that evoke figures in negative space, bodies sensed more than seen, and presences that persist in absence. > Canopée ENTER.black HeartBeat – Her Heart Found Its Rhythm in the Silence of Encounters | participatory performance Two strangers face each other without exchanging a word. Equipped with BPM sensors and noise-isolating headphones, the two participants sit silently face-to-face, listening only to each other’s heartbeat. > Escaliers des degrées Natalie Saint-Oyant Museum of Feelings and Periodic Table of Feelings | installation Two sensitive maps that examine the richness and complexity of human feelings. How can we resist increasingly standardized emotions? > Ecoconstruction Laure Subreville Each other’s voices | short film In a dimly lit bedroom, two people share an unmade bed. Their breathing and heartbeats, captured by a stethomicrophone, blend with the sounds of the room. Paul Flé Entangled | short film A contemporary piece in which two orbiting souls dance, swept up in a tender longing for eternal reunions. Chloé Sassi Listening to the Ground | short film One camera, eight people searching for the “vital frequency” in Seine-Saint-Denis—an invisible current that can be perceived only in certain places with telluric energy. La Maison Collective In the quiet of longing | short film Three women surrender to listening to their bodies through an intimate, contemplative dance in the Roman countryside. Eugénie Catry The Source | short film An ode to grandparents: the innocence of childhood and the memory of happiness that seemed eternal, set against the realization of loss. Featuring special performances: > 7:30 p.m., Cour Rebecca Minten | solo for clarinet and electronics Blending into the given environment without confronting or altering it, through instrumental and electronic music. > 8:15 p.m., Cour Due Exorde, Tender Care | acrobatics Acrobatic lifts in which two performers care for one another while embracing the risks of love and the dizzying heights of friendship. FESTIVAL – DAY 1 – Saturday, September 5 > ongoing, Friche – Canopée – Ecoconstruction – Escaliers des degrées Oblique Galerie > ongoing from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Place Baudoyer Le cri de l’escargot Traveling Comforting-Shoulder Booth | participatory theater Madeleine’s caravan offers small gestures of kindness, little pleasures, moments of shared humanity, and a comforting shoulder. > 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m., Salle des fêtes Duo Louise Close your eyes | participatory concert A performance of “Close your eyes” blending classical melodies with popular songs, like a gentle cocoon. > 2:15 p.m. – 3 p.m., Salle des fêtes Audrey Cohade Taking Flight | music and singing A poetic world alternating poems with piano and vocal pieces, offering an antidote to the loss of meaning and the frantic pace of daily life. > 4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m., Salle des fêtes Ouïntch Simple Sample | dance A choreographic piece that immerses us in an exploration of time and connection, unpredictability and renewal. A joyful ode to friendship. > 4:45 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., departure: Salle des fêtes Collectif Lakhésis Personal Messages | roaming theater A guided walk through fragments of letters, text messages, emails, and personal confessions. > 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Pépinière Clément Carre Front and Back | dance A choreographic performance in which outlines blur and bodily architectures gradually transform, questioning norms of identity and beauty. (Warning: This performance contains scenes of nudity. If you would prefer to avoid this content, we invite you to explore our other events taking place at the same time.) > 5:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Atelier La brodeuse d’histoires A Thread, a Son | poetry An embroidering mother has her finest creation stolen by the wind. Her youngest son travels to the ends of the earth to bring it back… A story inspired by a traditional Mongolian tale. > 6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m., Salle des fêtes Badass Fracasse Transmissions | theater A radio broadcast that takes us back to the 1980s through newspaper personal ads, late-night listening to Fréquence Gaie, and standing up for sick friends. > 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Salle des fêtes Reprise de volée 1:13 p.m., the Minute After | theater and rap Rap that speaks. Theater that sings. Words that scratch where it itches. Like a hug or a therapy session. > 8:30 p.m. – 10 p.m., Cour kikTexis slôeSet | immersive DJ set Sets built from open-source scientific data, combining live music, visual installations, and bodies in motion. FESTIVAL – DAY 2 – Sunday, September 6 > ongoing until 4 p.m., Friche – Canopée – Ecoconstruction – Escaliers des degrées Oblique Galerie > 2 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Pépinière Compagnie La Virevolte Stuffed Animals | theater What becomes of the tenderness each child feels for their stuffed animals? An OBLIQUE 2026 theatrical CREATION exploring this first relationship with nature, shaped by empathy and optimism. > 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Atelier Tom & Hugo Stripping Steel to the Bone | dance When a former rayon factory in Vaulx-en-Velin, Lyon, gives rise to a vital need for tenderness within a damaged environment. > 3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m., Salle des fêtes Allison Faye Bernard | dance A hermit crab is born without a shell and inhabits a succession of shells throughout its life, changing them regularly. What happens to our relationships in the face of transformation and crisis? > 4:15 p.m. – 5 p.m., Salle des fêtes Tamo Untitled | music Song, musical poetry, and performance remind us that emotion and vulnerability are our greatest strengths. Oblique was created in response to one observation: the profound lack of representations and shared visions surrounding the multiple crises affecting all of us. In response, its founders imagined a space where emerging artists could express themselves. Through artistic creation, Oblique seeks to provide a platform for young talent questioning and reinventing possible paths forward as they address the crucial issues of our time. More than a festival, Oblique aspires to become an active partner in the artistic journeys of those who shape, or have shaped, its events. Oblique is therefore conceived as a laboratory of ideas, a space conducive to experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration. Receive the Académie du Climat’s weekly program La Buvette de l’Académie is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to midnight! At lunchtime, come and enjoy seasonal, ultra-local vegetarian dishes, with vegan and gluten-free options, prepared by Yes We Camp. In the afternoon, enjoy cakes and pastries, followed in the evening by small sharing plates. Beer, wine, and hot and cold drinks are available at any time!
Source: paris.fr — photo: Oblique