“Art opens us up to something bigger than ourselves”

“The Art, meaning and faith festival” is the fruit of meetings we had with my husband, Jean-Yves, who is a permanent deacon of the diocese of Lille. As an ordination gift in 2017, our children offered us tickets for François Rancillac’s play, Cherchez la fault!, adapted from the book La Divine origine (Grasset) in which Marie Balmary rereads the first three chapters of Genesis. with his psychoanalytic eye and his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. We were so excited about this show that we brought it to Lille in March 2020 and October 2021.

This year again, we wanted to introduce this piece to new people. We therefore decided to bring the troupe back on March 5 and 6 and to extend the offer to other artists that we had also met in the meantime. This is how the idea of ​​a festival taking place over three weekends, from March 5 to April 1, was born, a project that we set up with about ten people, including two priest friends from Lille, Maxime Leroy and Xavier Behaegel, and other lay people, including psychiatric professionals. I myself am a psychologist.

If we are believers, this festival is open to everyone. Some activities take place in churches, others in third places. Thus, Pauline Pons, a guide lecturer who is not a believer, will give a conference on the theme of transcendence in art based on Matisse’s phrase “When I paint, I am religious”, on March 18 at 20 hours at La Margelle, a room located in Wazemmes, a popular district of Lille, and entrusted to the diocesan Fraternity of the squares which is part of the spirituality of Madeleine Delbrêl. The next day, March 19 at 11 a.m., Pauline Pons will also lead a guided tour at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille on the theme of the Bible in art.

Art opens us up to something bigger than ourselves. This festival is an opportunity to let ourselves be moved by painting, theater and dance. Among the proposals, there will be on April 1 at 3 p.m. at the Convivial, a third place committed to integral ecology in Lambersart, a dance workshop with Sophie Galitzine on the theme “Vulnerable, morose, and yet alive!” This title alone expresses what we want to convey through this festival. Indeed, we are all vulnerable with our fears, our weaknesses, our limits. French society today is in a gloomy mood, with the war in Ukraine, inflation, pension reform… Scandals of abuse and sexual assault in the Church are regularly in the news. All of this touches us deeply and yet we are all called to be alive no matter what. We therefore need to recharge our batteries in order to continue to act in the Church and in society. I believe that the relationship with God or the divine passes through the intelligence, the emotions, the body. My desire is that this festival be invigorating for everyone. »

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