Discussions
In 2025, the Centre Pompidou is beginning a major transformation !
In preparation for the renovation of its iconic building, the Centre Pompidou’s performance and conference halls were the first spaces to close. However, programming will continue throughout the renovation period thanks to the Constellation program, through which the Centre Pompidou extends its spirit across France and around the world, from 2025 until its reopening in 2030.
This autumn, join us at other Parisian institutions for new highlights featuring major intellectual figures such as Felwine Sarr, Gilles Deleuze, and more. Regular series of talks and events—Le Mensuel, Extra!, Effractions, Profession: Reporter—will also continue.
Felwine Sarr
Intellectual-in-residence at the Centre Pompidou and the Festival d’Automne
Evening School: "A Common Life"
Autumn 2025
Lectures | Workshops
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris 4th arrondissement
MC93, Bobigny
mk2 Bibliothèque x Centre Pompidou, Paris 13th arrondissement
Since 2017, the Centre Pompidou has invited a leading intellectual each year to accompany its discursive programme and to develop an original line of thought. After historian Philippe Artières, queer philosopher Paul B. Preciado, eco-philosopher Vinciane Despret, and American philosopher Judith Butler, the invitation this year—extended jointly by the Centre Pompidou and the Festival d’Automne in Paris—has been accepted by Senegalese thinker and economist Felwine Sarr (born 1972 in Niodor).
His "Evening School" begins with a central question: In an age of deepening global divisions and fractures, how can we imagine the possibility of a shared life on a planetary scale?
The programme unfolds in three thematic sequences, each featuring a multidisciplinary lecture with Felwine Sarr and major voices in contemporary thought and creative practice, along with parallel “sensitivity workshops” involving other artists and approaches.
| A programme Festival d'Automne x Centre Pompidou
Program :
19 October 2025
Théâtre de la Ville – Sarah-Bernhardt, Paris 4th
Cosmopolitics of Hospitality
with Judith Butler, moderated by Debarati Sanyal
2 November 2025
MC93, Bobigny
Dignity of the Dead, Community of the Living
with Faustin Linyekula, Alice Diop and Dorcy Rugamba
14 December 2025
mk2 Bibliothèque x Centre Pompidou, Paris 13th
Confronting the Planetary Crisis of Mutuality
with Alain Gomis, Nadia Yala Kisukidi and Sammy Baloji
Photo : Francesca Mantovani © Éditions Gallimard, 2021
Born in 1972 in Niodior, Felwine Sarr is a Senegalese economist, academic, writer, and musician.
Initially a professor of economics in Senegal and now a professor of African philosophy at Duke University (USA), Felwine Sarr explores contemporary global transformations through a perspective shaped by the experiences, knowledge systems, and questions arising from the African continent and the Global South.
Alongside his academic work, Sarr cultivates a deeply personal creative practice, expressed through narrative writing, theatre, and music—he has performed over 500 concerts and released three albums, both solo and with his band Dolé.
He is also actively involved in collective initiatives aimed at fostering a new generation of intellectuals and researchers across the African continent. Notable among these is the founding, alongside Achille Mbembe, of the Ateliers de la pensée in Dakar, which since 2016 has become a key platform for critical thought and exchange. He also co-founded the publishing house Jimsaan with Nafissatou Dia and Boubacar Boris Diop, which notably co-published La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (The Most Secret Memory of Men) by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt.
Attuned to the pressing issues of our time, Felwine Sarr co-authored a landmark 2018 report with Bénédicte Savoy on the restitution of African heritage. In 2025, he is leading the 11th session of RAW Académie in Dakar, an experimental programme dedicated to research into artistic and curatorial practices and thought.
The Deleuze Inventory
8 – 9 November 2025
Talks | Screenings | Performances | Workshops | Listening Sessions
mk2 Bibliothèque x Centre Pompidou, Paris 13th arrondissement
Marking the centenary of the French philosopher’s birth, The Deleuze Inventory revisits key themes from his work that resonate strongly with today’s world—from the role of machines to the rhythms of desire, from emancipatory becomings-woman to the orchestration of fear by neofascist movements.
Over two days, a rich programme of talks, screenings, readings, performances, workshops, and listening sessions brings together Deleuze readers and major creative voices from across disciplines, both French and international.
In parallel, a scholarly symposium dedicated to his book L’Image-temps (Cinema 2: The Time-Image), marking its 40th anniversary, will be held at Université Paris 8 starting 5 November 2025.
Cycle: Profession: Reporter
Journalism
One session per month
What does the job of a field journalist truly entail? What are its challenges, its risks, and its evolution in today’s world shaped by social, political, and environmental upheavals?
In collaboration with the Albert Londres Prize—which annually honours the best French-speaking investigative reporters—this series gives the floor to professionals of information, text, and image.
- 13 November 2025
Palmarès 2025 du Prix Albert-Londres
La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris 3rd arrondissement