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"Network of Cultural Capitals of Arabic countries" by Kacem Abdelaziz
Kacem Abdelaziz
Ingo Weber
Now before coming to the close, and to the little question phase, I would like to ask Abdelaziz Kacem to give us a few words about the Arabic initiative of Cultural Capitals.
Kacem Abdelaziz
Du fait de mon absence de Tunis, je ne puis pour l’instant vous donner une quelconque information sur Alger, Capitale culturelle.
Mais je vous remercie vivement de votre confiance en m’impliquant dans un éventuel network of networks. Je me réjouis de me retrouver à Athènes et je crois que je pourrais apporter un avis et une modeste contribution à la meilleure façon d’instaurer ce dialogue si urgent et tant souhaité entre la culture arabe et la culture européenne.
Veuillez agréer mes meilleures salutations.
Et à bientôt !
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Well, first of all just in a few words, let me say the following: I was in fact for culture in Tunis and I was responsible for a number of different departments under my competence as well as international cooperation, and certainly I was very dedicated to cooperation with both Europe’s: Western Europe and the former Socialist Europe. We had cultural agreements with all countries. I was very happy to have that work. It was at the beginning of the nineties when the new Europe began to be formed. The old policies we had would not function. So we said that given the disorganisation of Europe vis a vis the Arab world as well as with our country – I am just saying this basically to explain to you that in listening to you and in listening to your various projects I see that you are in the process of establishing between Cultural Capitals relations with Cultural Capitals of the past and of the future. And what I see here is that you do not have any Arab presence anywhere in your programmes. Even Istanbul has not provided for the Arab content even though it is going to make a mention of the Ottoman Empire. That is why I think that there is a lacony there. Melina Mercouri, I think, when she conceived her project it was cultural ecumenicism. It is beyond the confines of an individual city or country. Having said that I think that the lack of cooperation and the disorganisation of the networks that we have with Europe has meant that Cultural Capitals in the Arab states - in fact the precise term we use is Arab Capitals which belong to a specific region, in this sense the Arab world – according to what I know, and I know what happened in Tunis, for example, I know what has happened in Amman in Jordan because I participated in that and I know more or less what is happening at the moment in Algeria. So what is happening each country has tried to present its best self and there is a sort of revival of presenting oneself and explaining what we are and I do think that it is basically a closed cultural picture. There is not the opening up we have. Look at the Liverpool case where it is talking about a grand opening up of the city to the outside world and from what I understood this morning there was a bit of xenophobia displayed in Liverpool. That might sound strange I think if you are talking about an open city. But anyway I think you’ve got theatre, you’ve got music, you’ve got exhibitions, you’ve got the colloquia, everything is there, all the genre is there in the classical sense of the word and an effort is being made to try and to construct, although there is not a lot of money for this. But the Ministers of Culture with the Municipalities are trying to manage the whole project so what we have in a sense is official, and when I say official it means that culture is official, so you do select those who can work within a specific framework, but what I am going to try to do is to try to echo what I have heard here. I listened very, very carefully to what is being done and what you have presented. So it has been very interesting. So I am trying to echo that and perhaps propose that we do something in the practical sense to try and find links to your networks because that is how I can conceive of culture as being an opening up to the whole world and peace does depend on that.
Ingo Weber
Thank you very much, Kacem. Spyros Mercouris, I think you want to say something.
Spyros Mercouris
My dear beloved Abdelaziz – I am going to address you by your first name to show how my feelings are, namely ones of friendship. Perhaps you are not fully briefed because you have been invited to this Symposium but may not be aware of the fact that there have been efforts, and major efforts at that, which starts from the Cultural Capital Networks and by myself in Lebanon when it was Cultural Capital. Unfortunately more and more history has taken its toll so that we did not really have the response we expected. And with Morocco as well and when Rabat was the cultural capital major efforts there were made for Rabat to be able really to link into our system and to move ahead together. When I heard you talking in Brussels, and the information that I had that Algiers is the cultural capital despite events, I invited you to participate here to see basically how we conceive this Cultural Capitals and to see one of our objectives is to collaborate with all networks and of course with the Arab states. So for our part we have made the effort. The conditions prevailing were not conducive to enabling us to actually have the maximum of link. But we are most honoured to have you here with us and linking into the Arabic cultural network is important for us to be able to progress. There is no thinking for us to proceed with the network without having Arabic cities also participating.
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