Symposium “The Active Thought of Gilles Deleuze”, Banquets and Concerts

International symposium “The Active Thought of Gilles Deleuze”:
In Dialogues, with Claire Parnet, (Flammarion, 1977–96), Gilles Deleuze declares: “So many bodies growing in ours”, so many characters, so many concepts…Conceptual characters are like bodies that fold and unfold infinitely within us, creating maps, drawing vanishing lines and building blocks of becoming. The characters that grow within us activate themselves and activate our thinking, a living thought, that is to say a a moving thought, a thought as a desiring flow that builds the arrangements of philosophical machines. We, philosophers-artists, or the other way around, grow concepts as a result of a flow going through us.

Thinking with Deleuze’s immanency means thinking about these few questions: What are the new concepts, the new moving thoughts that arise from the Deleuze’s immanency? What is the conceptual continuity of Gilles Deleuze’s work? What about the contemporaneity of Deleuzian concepts in different disciplines: Philosophy, Architecture, Cinema, Art, Literature? Finally, is this century Deleuzian as Foucault imagined it? Would it be by having children behind his back? From and beyond the Deleuzian concepts, how can the problems raised by this philosophy of the future be questioned today? 

Several speakers will try to draw those vanishing lines in the following disciplines: Philosophy, Architecture, Cinema, Art, Literature. They are organized into eight “blocks of becoming”: Concepts: Igor Krtolica (University Amiens), Eric Alliez (University Paris 8), Mohamed Lamine Rhimi (University Tunis), Hicham Belhaj (University Fez). Conceptual characters: Barbara Bourchenin (University Bordeaux), Axel Cherniavsky (University Buenos Aires). Architecture: Christophe Le Gac (ESAD talm Angers), Marianna Charitonidou (University Athens), Laurent Lescop (ENSA Nantes). Cinema: Leila Montazeri and Fatemeh Porabdolrahimi (University Tehran), Brian Thomas (University Paris 8), Pablo Cabeza-Macuso (University Montpellier), Véronique Taquin (Novelist). Plastic arts: Anne Sauvagnargues (University Paris Nanterre), Brice Templereau (ESAD talm Angers), Barbara Janicas (University Paris 8). Literature: Catarina Pombo Nabais (University Lisbon), Jacques A. Gilbert (University Nantes), Emile Lévesque-Jalbert (University Harvard). Animal: Elena Tyushova (University Paris 8), Jessica Pilon Pinette (University Montreal). The Deleuzian century: Fabien Vallos (ESAD talm Angers), Paolo Heritier (University Turin), Jean-Clet Martin (Philosopher), Alain Damasio (Author of fiction), Hervé Couchot (University Tokyo), Réda Bensmaïa (Brown University, Providence).

Set design
The students of the Studio D2G (Design Game Global) / ESAD talm Angers designed and produced the symposium’s scenography. Supervised by Charles Poulain (Bientôt architectes) and Christophe Le Gac (art press, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui), they have invented and constructed the design by listening to Deleuze & Guattari and Jean-Clet Martin discussing the concepts of “Rhizome” and “Machines désirantes”.

Banquet
Fabien Vallos, philosopher and erudite gastronome, professor of philosophy at ESAD talm Angers in charge of the “Arts and Food” seminar, will create two banquets each evening of the symposium. With his students, they will create menus based on Deleuzian concepts. These banquets are reserved for students and participants to the symposium. 

Concerts
Tuesday November 8, 2022, Salle Kinos ESAD talm Angers, 8-9pm (Paris): Richard Pinhas will perform a one-hour concert. Former student of Gilles Deleuze, Pinhas is a French pioneer of the 1970s space-rock.

Wednesday November 9, 2022, Le Chabada, Angers, 7-8pm (Paris): Palo Alto French Band will give a concert with contributions from Richard Pinhas and the writer Alain Damasio.

For more information visit here. The symposium and the concerts will be live and online on YouTube and Twitch. Symposium organisation: Christophe Le Gac, Brice Templereau, Léo Janvier. The symposium “The active thought of Gilles Deleuze” is hosted by the seminar of Christophe Le Gac: “Bloc De Devenir (BDD)” / ESAD Angers; It is part of a 2019 RFI OIC Pays de la Loire awarded research project: Circum Fictio.