La Sorbonne 

Conference – Lithuania and France: A Distant Neighborhood, a Shared Experience 

The first conference in this cycle, titled *Lithuania and France: A Distant Neighborhood, a Shared Experience*, invites reflection on shared experiences across cultural epochs, artistic movements, innovations from minority communities, and memory controversies that resonate beyond distant borders. By abolishing geographical distance, these shared experiences create challenges, discoveries, and connections. The discussion will explore the links between the ideas that have shaped the course of history, uniting both countries. Topics will cover cultural and democratic policy aspects, issues of freedom—critical themes for both Lithuania and France—that enrich European values. 

Bourse de Commerce as part of the Festival d’Automne

The Speech - Lina Lapelytė 

The Speech extends Lina Lapelytė's conceptual and site-specific experimentation, questioning the link between sound and collective being. The starting point of the performance highlights a rupture experienced by increasingly urban generations, who are ever more distant from natural environments. Here, the artist explores how sound can evoke memories and fantasies that animals might trigger in young people. Play becomes an essential tool in evoking these associations through a choir. What emerges is an unexpected soundscape, made up of vocalizations that are more chimera-like reverberations than individually recognizable sounds. Indeed, it may be this sonic camouflage at the heart of the piece’s composition that best reflects our growing distance from our companion species. 

Through this shared endeavor, the artist also examines the affinities within a group that brings together both children and adolescents. Bonds of tenderness may be rekindled through the act of making sounds together. 

Official Opening of the Season at the Centre Pompidou 

In the presence of:

• Ingrida Šimonytė - Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania  
• Simonas Kairys - Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania  
• Chrysoula Zacharopoulou - Secretary of State for Development, Francophonie, and International Partnerships  
• Virginija Vitkiené - General Commissioner of the Lithuania Season in France 2024  
• Eva Nguyen Binh - President of the Institut français  
• Juljia Reklaitė - Director of the Lithuanian Cultural Institute  
• Arnoldas Pranckevičius - Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to France  
• Alix Everard - French Ambassador to Lithuania  
• Laurent Le Bon - President of the Centre Pompidou  

Performance by Dovydas Strimaitis. 

Gaîté Lyrique 

Nouvelles de Vilnius – Focus on New Lithuanian Creation in Paris 

Nouvelles de Vilnius – Focus on New Lithuanian Creation is the result of a collaboration between Radio Vilnius, an independent radio station based in Vilnius, Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, Le Sucre & Arty Farty in Lyon (an independent European club and association behind the Nuits Sonores festival and European Lab debate forums), and Halle Tropisme in Montpellier, a creative and cultural hub. These partners have come together to present, over three days in Paris, Lyon, and Montpellier, the richness of the contemporary Lithuanian scene through music, idea debates, and gastronomy. 

More than 200 events across the entire French territory will highlight Lithuanian culture and history, facilitate and strengthen sustainable cooperation between French and Lithuanian professionals, invite debates on major contemporary issues within the European Union, and share values of freedom, democracy, and equality.

In parallel, a mirror event on France in Lithuania will connect the cultural and historical ties between the two countries.

To learn everything about the Season, visit www.saisonlituanie.com.