The Traffic Quintet is a new string ensemble combining performance art with classical and modern music. Their new work evokes the celluloid passions of great film actresses.

Founded by violinist Dominique Lemonnier, this surprising string ensemble offers an eclectic mix of jazz, tango, classical, baroque and contemporary music, in addition to experimental work using film scores, with innovative composer Alexandre Desplat – noted for his scores for director Jacques Audiard, as well as The Queen and Benjamin Button. Desplat has conducted premières of his own music with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Following an initial, successful work (Nouvelles Vagues), Dominique Lemonnier is renewing her collaboration with Desplat, video artist Ange Leccia, and a group of musicians from France's top orchestras.

Divine féminin revisits the theme of womanhood with a tribute to artist Jacques Monory, whose work was greatly inspired by American film noir. The piece explores collective, obsessive visions of womankind, with a subtle reinterpretation of the Medea myth.

We encounter the sublime Maria Callas filmed by Pasolini to music by Pascal Dusapin, Isabelle Adjani as Camille Claudel, and clips from Chinatown, the Misfits, Notorious and Vertigo. Murdered, profound, passionate women express powerful universal emotions. The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès salutes Traffic Quintet for their highly original approach, and their commitment to artistic diversity.