William Kentridge The Great Yes, The Great No

LUMA Arles in partnership with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

March 1941: a cargo ship leaves Marseille for Martinique with, on board, several artists and intellectuals escaping from Vichy France, including André Breton, Claude Lévi-Strauss and the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.

This real event takes a magical turn when Charon, the ferryman of the dead who has now been promoted captain, rearranges space-time and invites other celebrated figures to join this new kind of ark, an allegory of all the forced expeditions of the past and present, including the representatives of anti-colonialism Aimé Césaire, Franz Fanon and the Nardal sisters.

The wonderful visual artist William Kentridge launches the spectator on to one of his artistic, political and spiritual adventures of which he alone holds the secret: a chamber opera inspired by the avant-gardes of the time, mixing the surreal and irrational (masks, collages, projections) and engaging dancers, performers, chorus members and instrumentalists in a vast web of musical styles, especially African and Caribbean.

Spoken and sung in English, French, Isiswati, Isizulu, Isixhosa, Setswana and Xitsonga with French and English subtitles.

Organised by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Flora Katz, Curator, with Lilah Remy, Assistant Curator.