JOURNÉES JEAN VILAR AU MUSÉE PAUL VALÉRY

The Paul Valéry Museum in Sète welcomes you on Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18, 2026, for two days of lectures and discussions as part of the Journ%Jean Vilar Days, in conjunction with the exhibition “The Colors of Jean Vilar,” on view through November 8, 2026. Saturday, October 17, at 11 a.m. – Guided tour of “The Colors of Jean Vilar” Ingrid Junillon, heritage curator and exhibition curator, will guide you through the exhibition’s eight sections dedicated to the connections between Jean Vilar and the painters of the École de Paris. Vilar’s theater made its mark through a visual aesthetic stemming from the friendships the theater director forged with Léon Gischia, Édouard Pignon, Gustave Singier, Mario Prassinos, Alfred Manessier, Roger Chastel, Alexander Calder, and Marcel Jacno. Saturday, October 17 at 2:30 p.m. – Roundtable discussion: “Jean Vilar in Dialogue with the Theater Trades” Dialogue with other creators was at the heart of Jean Vilar’s practice. Set design and costume design played a central role in his reinvention of theater. Macha Make%EFeff—author, director, visual artist, and costume designer—will engage in a dialogue with Herv%E9 Di Rosa—co-founder of Figuration Libre and founder of MIAM %E0 S%E8te— who has designed sets for various productions. Roundtable moderated by Nathalie Cabrera, executive director of the Jean Vilar/Maison Jean Vilar d’Avignon association. Sunday, October 18, at 3:30 p.m. — Roundtable discussion: “From the Art of Acting to the Magic of the Stage: Jean Vilar, Gérard Philipe, and the TNP Troupe” Nothing better illustrates Jean Vilar’s dual talent than his legendary seven-year collaboration with Gérard Philipe. Their meeting at the Palais des Papes marked a turning point in his career and revolutionized the theater at the dawn of the 1960s. Interview with Geneviève Winter—author of a biography of Gérard Philipe published in 2022 by Gallimard—hosted by Claude Muslin.