Festival

Le Printemps Simenon

First edition


In Institution Culture

2023 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Georges Simenon, the best-selling, most translated and most adapted French-language novelist of the twentieth century. His native city, Liège, is celebrating this event with Le Printemps Simenon. From March 8 to 11, 2023: 4 days of festival to pay tribute to the father of Maigret, whose work remains very current.

The first edition of the Le Printemps Simenon Festival, organized by his son John Simenon (through his company Simenon.tm) and the University of Liège, in close collaboration with the City of Liège, aims to make people discover and rediscover Simenon's work through exhibitions, literary meetings, film screenings, conferences, a colloquium and a thematic walk. Conviviality and the pleasure of meeting people are the hallmarks of this program, which is open to all.
Focus on the meetings proposed within the ULiège.

Colloquium | Simenon. Assessment and perspectives

  • march 8 to 10 (9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.), Salle des professeurs (Place du 20-Août) and Salle Bovy (Opéra complex), free admission
  • Under the direction of Laurent Demoulin, associate professor, novelist, Curator of the Simenon Fund at the ULiège

The ambition of the colloquium is to synthesize, valorize and deepen the already rich and varied scientific production devoted to the work of the novelist from Liège. In order to bring out new approaches to Simenon's work, the colloquium is based on six modules, each devoted to a subject and bringing together two speakers, one Simenonian, in charge of the "assessment", and one non-Simenonian to open up the perspectives.

Themes: Simenon: a journey and an exhibition, Simenon and cultural transfers, Adapting Simenon: cinema and television, Adapting Simenon: the case of comics, The question of style in Simenon, Simenon and the art of storytelling.

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Big conference : Simenon, traveler writer

  • march 10 (8pm), amphitheater of the Aquarium-Museum (Quai van Beneden) | Free admission
  • By Olivier Barrot, journalist, writer and television host

Georges Simenon never stood still. From river escapades on the canals of France to transhumance from one continent to another, his love of landscapes and people never left him. In his own way, Simenon is a migrant, curious about all latitudes. The list of his travels is as impressive as the list of his writings, one feeding the other. Also in his company, the public will travel from Lapland to Sudan, from Lithuania to Elba, from the Panama Canal to Tahiti, from Connecticut to Florida. His countless reports and novels give the world.

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Photo exhibition, comic book exhibition, literary meetings, conferences, reading-dialogue, film retrospectives, thematic walk: 4 days to (re)discover the work of the famous novelist!

Discover the whole program

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