Hors Pistes - Centre Pompidou

Hors Pistes: Twenty Years of Exploring Moving Images

Since its first edition in 2006, the Hors Pistes festival has established itself as a unique event on the Parisian cultural scene. Conceived as a research laboratory within the Centre Pompidou's programming, it explores new creative territories around moving images each year, with a resolutely multidisciplinary approach blending cinema, visual arts, performance, and live performance.

Each edition is built around a unifying theme that permeates the entire program: exhibitions, film screenings, performances, concerts, and round tables. Over the years, the festival has addressed subjects as varied as 'The People of Images', 'The Ages of the Image', 'The Ecology of Images', or 'The Rules of Sport', inviting filmmakers, choreographers, artists, and thinkers to question our relationship with images and their narrative power.

From the Centre Pompidou to the Territories: The Metamorphosis into Hors Champs

The closure of the Centre Pompidou for renovation work starting in 2025 marked a major turning point for the festival. Rather than suspending its activity, Hors Pistes reinvented itself under the name 'Hors Champs', becoming a touring festival that radiates throughout the region as part of the Centre Pompidou's 'Constellation' program. This metamorphosis is part of the Centre's commitment to continue its dissemination and creation mission during the five years of renovation.

A First Edition of Hors Champs in Picardy

The first edition of Hors Champs, titled 'What if we flew away?', took place from May to June 2025 at the Quadrilatère — Art Center of Beauvais and in the village of Hermes, in the Oise department. This inaugural edition explored the links between reality and imagination, between rural landscapes and fantastic elements, through installations, screenings, performances, and concerts, in dialogue with the inhabitants and the territory.

A Festival That Pushes the Boundaries of the Image

Whether in the form of Hors Pistes at the Centre Pompidou or Hors Champs on tour, this festival remains true to its original mission: to push the boundaries of moving images, question the forms of visual representation, and create bridges between artistic disciplines. It constitutes a rare space for freedom and experimentation in the French festival landscape.