The 10th annual Festival Croisements kicks off tonight, and damn, do they have a lot going on with this thing. Croisements is a collaboration between the French Embassy, Institut Française, Alliance Française, Faguo Wenhua... basically every single organization pushing French soft power in China. It's a sprawling, multi-site, multi-disciplinary festival devoted to all French arts, happening all over the city over three months (April 10-July 10). Croisements kicks off tonight with an invite-only soiree being MC'd by no less a dignitary than HIs Excellency the French Ambassador to China. You probably weren't invited to that. Check out this video for the non-VIP intro to the festival: But yeah, Croisements is packing in over 60 events/exhibitions pertaining to French literature, film, theater, classical music, rock music, electronic music, visual arts, culinary arts, dance, etc, etc, between now and July 10. You can browse through the full program here. To save you some time, here are our picks for the best of each category: ***

("As if a presence...") is a collaborative work between French author Belinda Cannone, French visual artist Charlotte Guibé, and Chinese artist Ren Bo. The work emphasizes aspects of interdisciplinarity and trans-media interactions between static and moving images and the written word: "While the ink wash paintings by Charlotte Guibé erase or draw a veil over the objects and characters, Ren Bo, an artist living in Beijing, films in the negative, which reinforces the ghostly presence already observed in his mudras." Woven in between the two visual artists' work is Cannone's textual (re-)interpretations, juxtaposed in real time with the images. Comme une présence... is also multi-site: it will be on view at Jiali Gallery from May 9-June 6, with a parallel exhibit at Meridian Space from May 8-29 featuring works from Guibé's previous residency in Beijing. More info

Institut Français and Broadway Cinematheque pay homage to French stage and screen actor Denis Lavant with a six-film retrospective of his work. Lavant is known for his physically extreme and expressive performances, which draw on his background training in acrobatics and mime. The Croisements selection includes some of Lavant's standout film roles, including Capitaine Achab, Boy Meets Girl, Mauvais Sang, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Beau Travail, and Journey to the West. The screening series runs from April 1-15 at Institut Française. More info

French theorist and semiotician Roland Barthes had a lot of words for a lot of things, but China was the one subject to render him mute. Fellow Frenchman Francois Jullien said of Barthes' trip to the Middle Kingdom: "When Roland Barthes returned from his 1975 trip to China, he brought back nothing more than a few pages... We recall how, in a similar quest during the same period, his encounter with Japan had so stimulated his passion for signs. In telling contrast, these few pages about China convey nothing so much as his reserve, his silence." Nevertheless, the French Cultural Center will host Roland Barthes Week from May 9-13 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the man's birth, including "workshops on new Chinese Mythologies, Fu Lei training for translators, conferences, seminars and debates with three French specialists." More info

is a black comedy by French stage director Rémi De Vos: "Three ruptures, three scenes. A man, a woman, a couple, three funny and tragic stories which are organised around the principles of split, whether it be of the relationship between the man and woman, of the social structure or of the relationship between parents and children." Following its London premier in January 2015, 3 Splits treats three short scenes on love, and all of the dark comedic turns that can be found therein. It will be produced at Beijing's Nine Theater for a run from Tuesday, May 12-Sunday, May 17. Find the full schedule here.

is a feature-length stage production scripted for five contemporary dancers and a cameraman, mashing up dance, theater, and film in a live spectacle. Based on this description it seems like a classic dinner theater whodunnit mixed with a bewildering avant-garde choreographic routine/surrealist melodrama: "A couple is invited to dinner; the butler recognises the guest; the dinner never takes place. A mist of mystery, anxiety and violence descends. Ugly images lead us to the heart of a drama which you will never know if based on reality, a film or a nightmare." The Beijing showing will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, May 13-14 at Poly Theatre in Dongzhimen. 7:30pm start both nights. More info here.

Multi-disciplinary, Montreal/Paris-based French artist Grégory Chatonsky presents his latest work, Télofossiles, the end result of an extended residency in China. His work in general "questions the notions of virtual reality, variable fictions, technological ontology, flows, and destruction by means of the digital arts." This one, in particular, addresses the "hypertrophy of memory" in the digital age, i.e., how our memories are being eroded by the digital technologies we use to augment them. Through a multi-media digital installation, Chatonsky aims to cause visitors to "contemplate various prospects for our future archaeology." Télofossiles will be on view from April 25-May 18 at Unicorn Art Centre in Caochangdi. More info

is an exhibit bringing together the work of eight French designers and three Chinese artists "whose principal medium is food." The works use food as a lens through which to view culture, society, geography, national identity, production, consumption, etc. The exhibit will explore these themes visually through a number of media, including installation, performance, video, and live modeling. Curator Marc Bretillot ("pioneer of Food Design in Europe," naturally) says: "The projects are made up of varied collaborations with agro-industry, catering and chefs, events, luxury brands but also modern art and research. This exhibition thus provokes reflection on the way we think about the food of tomorrow." Food Design will be on view at the Today Art Museum from April 11-25. More info

World-renowned operatic soprano Véronique Gens makes her China debut, performing in Beijing with the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Gens has graced Europe's grandest opera stages, completed over 70 recordings, and taken home top honors in her field. In China she's performing a rarely heard program, La Mort de Cléopâtre by Berlioz and Turandot Suite, Op. 41. Catch her on Tuesday, May 19 at Poly Theatre in Dongzhimen. More info here.

The Ensemble de musique interactive (EMI) is a revolving group of musicians from different stylistic backgrounds formed by composer Jacopo Baboni Schilingi in 2001. The core of their work is based on using interactive technologies for composition and performance, which finds output in live concerts, sound installations, educational workshops, and research programs. In Beijing, Schilingi will perform a recital for violin and electronic music in a program paying homage to French composer and electronic music pioneer Pierre Boulez, complete with "transcripts from Jimi Hendrix, a play by Kaija Saariaho," and Schilingi's own additions. Wednesday, May 6 at Meridian Space. More info

Including psych rock as its own category here because I like it a lot, and this is my personal #1 pick for Croisements. Legendary interstellar prog-psych tribe Magma will come to Beijing under the auspices of veteran French out-sound distributors Kaiguan Culture. Quoting the wiki: "Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a 'vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future' that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the planet Kobaïa. Later, conflict arises when the Kobaïans—descendants of the original colonists—encounter other Earth refugees." Pretty rad. I wasn't even aware that Magma was still going, but they seem to have reformed from whatever molten hybrid state they'd been in for the last 30 years, and solidified to once again conquer Earth. Check out a sample of what they're working with here. Magma's at Yugong Yishan on Saturday, May 30. More

Nomadic whirlwind trans-border folk duo Vialka returns for their annual tour of China. They really forged the DIY foreign band touring in China routine, first coming in 2003. They've been back nearly every year since, most recently with their small child in tow. This time around, they're touring a new, interactive show conceived in collaboration with Chinese indie publisher Echo Books: "After an acoustic set of compositions and improvisations, the audience is invited on stage to read, recite, perform and to proclaim in loud voices, be they English, French, gibberish or Chinese. Vialka meanwhile, to accompany these words, will do what Vialka does best — a rhythmical, sonorous background texture." Vialka will also be giving workshops on vocal expression, creative writing, open-source sound design, and other topics. And, of course, they'll play some of the country's finest rock'n'roll dives. They have four dates in Beijing: Saturday, June 13 at Yugong Yishan, Sunday, June 14 at Kubrick, Monday, June 15 at Institut Français, and Wednesday, June 17 at World Financial Center. More info

is a collection of musicians, inventors, and dumpster divers who create compositions, sound art installations, and new instruments out of recycled materials. In Beijing, core members Florence Kraus and Benoît Poulain — in association with the World Culture Open NGO — will lead workshops on how to create beautiful music(al instruments) from the discarded junk lying all around us. They say: "As part of the ‘Franco-Chinese Month for the Environment,’ our refuse reveals itself to be a fertile ground for creativity, from which a shower of shared sonorous pleasures will be released through a collaborative, fun-filled closing concert." I say, "Come on guys, 'Franco-Chinese Month for the Environment' IS NOT A THING." This does sound cool though. The workshops will be held from June 23-28 at Beijing World Open (S9-105, Dangdai MOMA, from 1-4pm daily. More info *** And that's just a small percentage of what Festival Croisements has to offer. Take your time with the full program here.