Philo Bistro from Sydney's Alliance Franchise, moderated by Oliver Vojetta

Philo Bistro: Who is Oliver Vojetta?

Born in Nancy, Oliver moved to Sydney in 2012 with his Australian wife after working in financial markets for 10 years in London. Today an author, literary critic and cultural presenter, Oliver has been a moderator for each of the 21 sessions since the beginning. 2022. Monthly meetings of Philo Bistro organized by Alliance Française de Sydney.

This Thursday May 9, 2024 Olivier Vogetta To present his latest book, “The Madness of the Brothers,” Philo finds himself in the bistro's guest spot. Oliver was kind enough to answer some of our questions.

How was the idea of ​​creating Filo Bistro born?

“The idea was born from a few evenings at home before covid, called small discussions among French people.” Oliver says.

The idea was to invite 10 or 15 French friends and contacts to my house for an evening of discussion and debate. So, everyone brought a dish and a bottle of wine to share. Then, everyone came up with their ideas: everyone put politics, philosophy, society, culture, art subjects…anything on little pieces of paper. All the questions people are interested in with a group to better understand something that applies to them or can help them in their daily life.

So, that's how we started. We had 2-3 evenings. Then came covid, so it was curtailed. But still, the success of these evenings was: there was incredible feedback. I mean, I discovered that people love to debate.

“I already knew that the French love to debate, but in a comfortable environment with a glass of wine, even more so.” Oliver explains.

Tell us about the beginnings of Filo Bistro at Alliance Française in Sydney

In early 2022, I proposed to Alliance Franchise to develop a new concept called Filo Bistro. They jumped at the opportunity as they wanted to bring life back to the Alliance franchise following the Covid episode. So we put it in place.

Now we're in the middle of 2024 and it's only getting worse. I am in contact with other French coalitions precisely to extend the concept. The only problem for now is the budget question. I was in touch with Melbourne and Canberra, but Brisbane agreed and we were more than happy to have Filo Bistro at their place. The problem is with the flight ticket for me to travel. And then a night in a hotel is a bit complicated for French alliances. But hey, we're working on it anyway, and we're working on it.

Philo Bistro: What is it?

We have guests coming on site or people connecting from Paris in general. It depends.

“But anyway, what I'm really looking for are guests with whom we can be intimate and complicit. Because not all artists and writers are necessarily like that.

So I'm looking for people who I think can have an in-depth discussion because, for me, Philo Bistro's point is that I'm not asking the questions that 50,000 journalists have asked. My ambition with Philo Bistro is that we go “deep” enough for a discussion of an intimate nature to really understand a person better and interpret their work more broadly. in art, politics, culture or other fields. I'm trying to develop a new concept to improve on what I did before: it's not static, it's evolving. It is a true entrepreneurial adventure.

Each event, organized monthly and lasting approximately 90 minutes, can be recorded and viewed On the website of the Alliance Française de Sydney or on Olivier's Podcast Channel “Another Look”. Filo Bistro has a maximum capacity of 90 people per room arranged. I know it's more the exception than the norm, but for 2-3 events we've sold out all the seats, which is a shame because sometimes we've had to say no to 10, 20 or even 30 people because of capacity issues. . This is ugly.