Echoing the life and work of Camille Claudel, students from Emmanuelle Huynh's choreography studio at Beaux-Arts Paris have been given carte blanche to devise a unique evening at Musée d'Orsay, featuring dance, song, music and improvisation performances.
They offer a sensitive reinterpretation of the traces left behind by Camille Claudel. What is her legacy? How do we remember her? How has she been portrayed? Through voices, letters and memoirs, they offer an intimate insight into the life of a woman who carved out a place for herself among the artists of her time. Between clay and bronze, robustness and fragility, tenderness and rigidity, the plastic creations and performances operate through allusion, evocation and implication. An opportunity to think about escape: real, re-enacted or dreamed.
With a special live appearance by the remarkable author Louise Ebel. Join her as she delves into the heart of the artist's life, shedding light on her journey, her resilience, the trials she endured in her time, and how her story continues to resonate with us today.
Practical information
Thursday, 11 December 2025, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Free upon presentation of a museum admission ticket
Programme
I am like cabbage eaten by caterpillars
6:40–7:00 p.m. / Level 2 – Salle de fêtes
This sound installation invites you to listen to the raw archives of Liliana Liviano Wahba, Doctor of Psychology and Art History, reading the letters of Camille Claudel while she was confined, thus revealing the intimacy and authentic emotion of the artist's experience.
It's me three times
7:00-7:10 p.m. / Level 2 - Salle de fêtes
Inspired by the artist's emblematic work L'Âge mûr (Mature Age), this performance features three connected bodies that evoke the artist's struggle, imbalance and memory in the face of censorship.
My chair between four walls
7:10-7:25 p.m. / Level 2 - Salle de fêtes
What is the impact of isolation and loneliness on the body? This sensitive dance invites us to experience prolonged confinement and the effects on the human being of a life lived in isolation.
The size
7:25-7:35 p.m. / Level 2 - Salle de fêtes
A performance in which the body becomes a work of art in motion, a living sculpture, highlighting the extremities with moulded hands and feet that evoke Rodin's Gates of Hell, a work on which Camille Claudel worked extensively.
Madness
7:35–7:50 p.m. / Level 2 – Salle de fêtes
We question the stigma attached to the term “madness” and the way society delegitimises the strength and rebellion of women like Camille, exploring the challenges of creativity in the face of constraint and silence.
Escape
7:55-8:15 p.m. / Walking performance starting from Level 2 - Salle de fêtes
A sensitive exploration of different forms of escape, between enclosed spaces and mental liberation, through the subtle interplay of bodies, drapery and sculpture. An invitation to transcend boundaries, whether physical, social or artistic.
The Confidante
8:15-8:25 p.m. / Walking performance on Level Nave - Upper Nave
Come under a woven shelter to gather and discover a poetic experience of exchanges and confidences suspended in whispers and secrets. A moment of imaginative intimacy with the artist's work and life.
Epilogue: La fonte
8:15-8:25 p.m. / Level nave - Upper nave
Like a final metamorphosis, a magma of living bodies forms to give birth to silhouettes inspired by the sculptural forms of Camille Claudel. This performance explores the dynamics of the whole in motion to create poetic moments.
With the participation of choreographers
Quentin Bouard, Clotilde Gain, Alice Chalmandrier, Xris Lestienne, Raphaëlle Nordmann, Gabriel Jassoud, Juliette Bébin, Adrien Bougrat, Calista Qi, Baptiste Agnero Rigot, Tifenn Piron, Orso Blais, Aryle Nsengiyumva, Romane Audren, Simon Deterre, Isador Premier, Théo Noël, Laura Meslin, Naïs Saltel. Students from Emmanuelle Huynh's workshop at the Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Photo credit: Students from the Huynh workshop © Julien Previeux
