Le Banquet imagines and produces encounters to explore great ideas with those who study, think and transmit them.
Conceived as a contemporary philosophical salon, it brings together, in limited numbers, philosophers, writers, scientists and figures engaged in the life of ideas. Each encounter is designed as a full intellectual experience: a strong theme, a demanding speaker, a chosen venue and a conversation that continues with the audience.
Philosophy is the guiding thread, without defining its boundaries. From classical philosophy to contemporary science, Le Banquet explores ideas that have shaped our thought as well as those that are transforming our understanding of the world today. Guests are chosen for the rigour of their knowledge and their gift for transmission. Intellectual demand always goes hand in hand with the pleasure of receiving, exchanging and being together.
With museums and cultural institutions, Le Banquet imagines original encounters based on a work, an exhibition or a heritage. Beyond the transmission of knowledge, it opens a space for interpretation and conversation: making works resonate in our time, renewing the gaze we cast upon them, and revealing what they still have to tell us.
To think is to open a space between what happens to us and the response we give it. It is in that space that our freedom begins.
Trained as a gemmologist, today a journalist and producer, Chaïma Teisseire imagined Le Banquet as a space for transmission and conversation. She creates bridges between cultural institutions and thinkers, researchers or singular voices capable of shedding new light on a work, an exhibition or a heritage.