PARI! winners discuss the challenges of international distribution
Published on 6 October 2025
Gathered at the Institut français on October 2, 2025, the winners of the PARI! - Parcours d'Accompagnement et de Réflexion sur l'International shared a day of exchanges and collective work around issues linked to international mobility, cooperation and artistic dissemination.
A collective day at the Institut français
The October 2 session, held at the French Institute, marked a key milestone in the journey. The morning was devoted to a group session entitled Faire groupe autour de l'international, offering participants time to discuss practices, challenges and opportunities in an international context.
In the afternoon, two workshops deepened these reflections:
- From vision to implementation: building your eco-responsible roadmap in a changing world to explore sustainable practices and how to reconcile values, constraints, contradictory injunctions and ambitions in building your roadmap.
- Doing or undoing international business, to understand international business on multiple scales, laying the groundwork for a development strategy.
These exchange sessions helped to identify the needs of the artistic teams and to consider concrete avenues for the continuation of the course and support, until May 2026.
Regards croisés
Eva Kobal for Soundinitiative
"Ensemble Soundinitiative has always had an international outlook. Its members hail from six countries on three continents. This diversity feeds the group's artistic approach and has naturally favored its influence abroad. However, these experiences have often resulted in isolated, one-off trips.
With the PARI! program, we want to rethink the way we distribute, explains Eva Cobal. From now on, we want to build more sustainable, responsible and grounded partnerships that avoid 'one-shot' tours and better inscribe our work over time."
Betty Tchomanga for GANG
"I have different experiences of working "internationally", even if I find it hard to use this term, at the crossroads of subjects that interest me such as the circulation of narratives between Europe and Africa or questions of distribution, since I've traveled a lot as a performer in international companies.
Now, as artistic director, I'm looking to build projects that are consistent with my values and my thoughts on political issues, decolonial issues, but also ecological and societal issues. I found that PARI! could provide a good framework for initiating such reflections and confronting myself with other professional realities."
Johanne Humblet for Les filles du renard pâle
"We have some major projects, recently in Brasilia in opening the Saison de la France au Brésil or in Cameroon for example. Initially, it was a simple artistic presentation, but from there other projects were born: the creation of a comic strip, a musical project, training courses and even the idea of opening a circus school, as there isn't one on site yet. So, from one initial project, many others can emerge.
With PARI! we want to give ourselves the freedom to welcome all these projects and figure out how to structure them. PARI! also enables us to exchange views on very concrete questions linked to logistics, sending materials... These are essential issues if we are to continue to act responsibly and sustainably."
A collective dynamic to be pursued
All three emphasize the richness of the exchanges and the complementary nature of the profiles brought together.
"What's valuable is meeting people from different disciplines but facing similar issues," notes Eva Cobal.
For Betty Tchomanga, the day opened up "many avenues for reflection", making people want to extend the discussions beyond the session.
Johanne Humblet adds that "these moments enable us to link our realities in the field to a collective vision. We leave with new ideas, but also the desire to continue thinking together."
The winning structures will be able to continue the work they've started, and delve deeper into the subjects that interest them most, with individualized support from the PARI! program until May 2026.
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