FESTIVAL D’AUTOMNE – carte noire
On Tour
| Tickets | Dates | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets | Sep 11 - Sep 26, 2026 |
MÉNAGERIE DE VERRE, Paris, France |
What bridges can be made between Harare, Dakar and Paris? What forms of dialogue and exchange can we imagine between these three cities, their history and present? A proposition made to her by the Festival d’Automne, nora chipaumire’s Carte Blanche —renamed as carte noire—has been drawn up as a form of response to these questions. Formerly based in New York, the choreographer and dancer has close links with each of these metropoles: in Zimbabwe, the country of her birth and in which she founded nhereraHUB, a place of work and reflection which is open to projects of different kinds; in Senegal, where she spent a long period of time working, notably, with the women of the Toubab Dialaw village; and in Paris where several of her works have been presented, the image of which has given her a love of conversation, in the true sense of the word.
These encounters might just as easily take on the form of exchanges around a dining room table, dialogues with and between academics, and the conveyors of knowledge and emotion that constitute fashion, books, performances, music, food, and dance. All this and more will be overflowing within the four walls of the Ménagerie de Verre, the Festival’s beating heart during the first three weeks of its 2026 edition, until it comes to a close in the exhibition spaces of the Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art.
With a mixture of respect and curiosity for one of the most emblematic arts venues in Paris, nora chipaumire’s intention is not to turn the place upside down, but rather to add other stories, and histories, to practices which are already an integral part of the former printing works in the 11th arrondissement. Examples include workshops on the technique centred upon the animist body and radical black African presences, that she terms as nhaka; Zimbabwean and Senegalese cooking in the Pistil restaurant inside the Ménagerie; performances, DJ sets and concerts in the basement and above; and encounters in connection with books and records, on the subject of reflections and archive material that together document African presence in Paris and the contribution of black aesthetics.
Alongside this rich, enticing programme there will of course be the whole carte noire, which will take shape in response to what the present brings and the encounters, instants of joy, intelligence and emotions which both inspire us and help us move forward, collectively. Once these much-wanted bridges have been put in place, all we then need to do is dance.