Launched by the French Institute in Paris and its worldwide cultural network in 2016, the Night of Ideas is a project staged in Paris, London and across the world. This year's event takes places on 27 January.
In these changing and challenging times, when many of us feel the need to share ideas and exchange views, the Night of Ideas provides a platform to reflect upon current issues and rethink tomorrow’s world.
Crossing French, British and European perspectives on the common theme Rebuilding Together, the Night of Ideas will tackle the latest ideas behind issues central to our particularly troubled era.
This year’s edition gathers 40 leading figures from both sides of the Channel who will take part in free, lively, onsite and online hybrid discussions. Anthropologist Philippe Descola, economist Mariana Mazzucato, novelist Elif Shafak and artist Zineb Sedira, to name but a few, will discuss new ways of rebuilding together.
We are now collectively aware that we have reached a global socio-economic and environmental crisis. While this state of emergency is redefining our individual rights and reshaping our political ground, it is equally reprioritising the nature of our shared duties as citizens. A collective desire for action and new initiatives is arising: it is becoming increasingly clear that the only way we'll save this world is by rebuilding it, together.
Global crises cause global changes, thereby calling global action: How do we make global decisions together? Against this background, what is the role of the State? Who should the decision-makers be? How do we deal with the new projected prospects and emerging contradicting voices? In this polyphonic and multidimensional context, how can we find a common ground on which we can rebuild together?
The Night of Ideas gathers writers, philosophers, artists, scientists, academics, journalists and students to explore the recent changes in our world and sow the seed of new initiatives.
Alan Rusbridger, Editor in Chief and Sameer Rahim, Arts and Books Managing Editor of Prospect, will respectively chair the debates The State in All its States and The Problem with Universalism.
In the run-up to the Night of Ideas, Before the Night presents a selection of thought-provoking films and discussions, including a special screening of Secrets and Lies followed by a Q&A with director Mike Leigh and Memory Box presented by Lebanese artists and filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, winners of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2017. The Velvet Queen, an outstanding documentary following wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and writer and adventurer Sylvain Tesson on their quest to find the snow leopard, will also be premiered. A programme on memory and identity curated by students of the National Film and Television School will complete the programme.
As part of The Little Night, a public and school programme offers entertaining and creative workshops and activities designed to familiarise children and teenagers with the concepts and broad themes that will be discussed during the Night of Ideas.
Curated in close partnership with the European Institute and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University College of London and the Global Engagement Department of King’s College, supported by EUNIC Global Fund and organised in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the UK and the European Parliament Liaison Office in the UK, the Night of Ideas is enriched with European voices thanks to the members of the European Union National Institutes for Culture, EUNIC London.
