December 2025
This month the jury for the Archives Prize and the Composition Prize met to select our next winners.
Research
Prix des archives
Matteo Bafico
Matteo Bafico holds a doctorate in French literature. His research interests focus on 20th-century French literature, and more specifically on Franco-Italian literary relations, literary journal studies, correspondence, and European intellectual networks during the interwar period.
His project « André Gide as Seen by Léon Pierre-Quint: Archives, Correspondence, and Testimonies from 1924 to 1952 » aims to situate Pierre-Quint’s study, *André Gide, sa vie, son œuvre* (1932–1952), within the context of literary life from the 1920s to the 1950s and the early period of Gide criticism. Based on a cross-disciplinary analysis of archives, correspondence, and unpublished manuscripts, this project seeks to approach Pierre-Quint’s study not as an isolated critical work, but as a tool for shedding new light on André Gide and his milieu. [learn more]
Creation
Prix de la composition
Born in Toulouse in 1989, Benjamin Attahir began by learning the violin and then, very early on, developed a passion for composition. Winner of numerous awards, his works are performed by various ensembles and orchestras. He is the composer of five operas, the premieres of which he also conducted.
His project « Love is Louder » is a concerto for clarinet, fans, and symphony orchestra. “Beyond their integration as modulated sound sources throughout the piece, these objects—incongruous, you might say—will create an olfactory dramaturgy, opening a new space of resonance for the soundscapes through which the soloist will guide us.” The commission for this work is the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France / Schleswig-Holsteinisches Sinfonieorchester / Buffet Crampon, Paris. [learn more]