Le Voyage de la Vénus Noire – Alice Diop
French filmmaker and screenwriter Alice Diop is the protagonist of the second event of Extended, a performance program curated by Ilaria Mancia across Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, and the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi.
In the rooms of Punta della Dogana, Alice Diop presents Le Voyage de la Vénus Noire, her first theatrical performance inspired by the eponymous text by artist and poet Robin Coste Lewis. Conceived as a poetic and metaphorical odyssey, the work travels through space and time to restore voice and presence to figures erased from Western art history, sometimes made anonymous or transformed into ornaments. In an intimate and essential staging, the director mediates the text, embodying a profound and vibrant refl ection that engages the audience with both force and sensitivity. The performance unfolds as a dizzying journey through our visual subconscious, where images, stereotypes, and ghosts of representation emerge, inviting us to reflect on how the violence of History has shaped our innermost self.
Alice Diop is an award-winning French filmmaker and screenwriter of Senegalese origin, known for her socially engaged cinema that explores French society, the suburbs, and questions of identity. Raised in Aulnay-sous-Bois, she studied sociology and history, bringing a documentary-style and intimate perspective to works such as Nous (2021) and Vers la tendresse (2017). Her fiction debut, Saint Omer (2022), won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize and the Lion of the Future in Venice. Aiming to question French society from the margins, she has distinguished herself due to her determination to give substance to unique journeys, exploring the personal to access the universal. Alice Diop’s work explores geographical areas that are still largely absent from most cinema screens and brings together a variety of devices that draw on the history of both cinema and literature. Viewed through the prism of the banality of human existence, these observations find expression in diverse settings, from journeys on the RER, to conversations outside betting shops, to preparing meals in the kitchen. Imbued with a faux simplicity (in-camera, real-time, documentary essay), her work transforms the suburbs into a testing ground that is at once cinematographic, semantic and sociological. The political dimension of everyday life is stripped back to an almost excruciating degree, using an artistic approach that is as reflective as it is powerful.
CREDITS:
Concept Alice Diop
Text Robin Coste Lewis
With Alice Diop
Translation and artistic collaboration Nicholas Elliott
External eye Thierry Thieû Niang
Lighting design Marie-Christine Soma
Props and technical management Lucie Basclet
Costumes by LEMAIRE
Rehearsal assistant Léa Boublil
Translation review Jean-Philippe Tessé
The text by Robin Coste Lewis, in its French translation, is published by Gallimard (November 2025).
Production MC93 — Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, Festival d’Automne à Paris
Co-production Comédie de Genève, La Comédie de Valence – CDN Drôme-Ardèche, Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Le Rideau de Bruxelles, Centre Dramatique National Orléans – Centre-Val de Loire, MansA - Maison des Mondes Africains
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