Launched by the Institut français in 2017, the NIGHT OF IDEAS is a project staged simultaneously in Paris, London and worldwide.
For this year’s edition, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni has put together a thought-provoking programme of debates, performances, gigs and screenings exploring the latest ideas behind issues central to our times, taking place on Thursday 25 January 2018, from 5.30pm to the heart of the night.
Inspired by the Power to the Imagination slogan of the Paris May 1968 protests and crossing French, British and European perspectives with leading experts, artists and researchers, the NIGHT OF IDEAS will look into the major aspirations of our times, around five main strands:
- BRAVE NEW WORLDS: This strand will take us to the new territories of artificial intelligence and to the outer space with special appearances of spationauts Timothy Peake and Thomas Pesquet.
- NEW FUTURES: We’ll explore the ability of artists to reinvent and change the world and invite the youngest to have their say on how they imagine the future.
- WOMEN SHAPING THE WORLD: As we are entering the centenary year of women’s suffrage in the UK, we’ll reflect on where we stand with women’s rights and gender equality.
- IMAGINATION AND CREATION: We’ll explore the line where fiction and reality meet in political TV drama and the crossroads between art and science.
- BACK TO THE FUTURE: On the 50th anniversary of May 1968, we’ll look at the political hopes and aspirations that have risen and fallen throughout the last five decades and the meaning of revolutions.
In the run-up to the NIGHT OF IDEAS, a film season, BEFORE THE NIGHT, will echo the different themes and the LITTLE NIGHT will invite pupils from London schools to reflect on the main topics. The NIGHT OF IDEAS is organised by the Institut français, the Scientific Department and the Cultural Department of the French Embassy, in partnership with Imperial College London, Kings College London, the Maison française d’Oxford, the V&A and the University of York, and with the support of the European Commission Representation in the UK.
